3/9/2021 Linear Programming with Python and PuLP – Part 3 – Ben Alex Keen

Ben Alex Keen

LINEAR PROGRAMMING WITH PYTHON AND PULP - PART

1ST APRIL 2016 | IN PYTHON | BY BEN KEEN

Linear Programming with Python and PuLP

Part 3
Real world examples – Resourcing Problem
We’ll now look at 2 more real world examples.

The rst is a resourcing problem and the second is a blending problem.

Resourcing Problem¶
We’re consulting for a boutique car manufacturer, producing luxury cars.

They run on one month (30 days) cycles, we have one cycle to show we can provide value.

There is one robot, 2 engineers and one detailer in the factory. The detailer has some holiday o , so only h
days available.

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3/9/2021 Linear Programming with Python and PuLP – Part 3 – Ben Alex Keen

The 2 cars need di erent time with each resource:

Robot time: Car A – 3 days; Car B – 4 days.

Engineer time: Car A – 5 days; Car B – 6 days.

Detailer time: Car A – 1.5 days; Car B – 3 days.

Car A provides €30,000 pro t, whilst Car B o ers €45,000 pro t.

At the moment, they produce 4 of each cars per month, for €300,000 pro t. Not bad at all, but we think w
do better for them.

This can be modelled as follows:

Maximise

Profit = 30, 000A + 45, 000B

Subject to:

A ≥ 0

B ≥ 0

3A + 4B ≤ 30

5A + 6B ≤ 60

1.5A + 3B ≤ 21

In [1]:

import pulp

In [2]:

# Instantiate our problem class

model = pulp.LpProblem("Profit maximising problem", pulp.LpMaximize)

Unlike our previous problem, the decision variables in this case won’t be continuous (We can’t sell half a c
the category is integer.

In [3]:

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3/9/2021 Linear Programming with Python and PuLP – Part 3 – Ben Alex Keen

A = pulp.LpVariable('A', lowBound=0, cat='Integer')

B = pulp.LpVariable('B', lowBound=0, cat='Integer')

In [4]:

# Objective function
model += 30000 * A + 45000 * B, "Profit"

# Constraints
model += 3 * A + 4 * B <= 30
model += 5 * A + 6 * B <= 60
model += 1.5 * A + 3 * B <= 21

In [5]:

# Solve our problem

model.solve()
pulp.LpStatus[model.status]

Out[5]:

'Optimal'

In [6]:

# Print our decision variable values

print "Production of Car A = {}".format(A.varValue)
print "Production of Car B = {}".format(B.varValue)

Production of Car A = 2.0

Production of Car B = 6.0

In [7]:

# Print our objective function value

print pulp.value(model.objective)

330000.0

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3/9/2021 Linear Programming with Python and PuLP – Part 3 – Ben Alex Keen

So that’s €330,000 monthly pro t, compared to their original monthly pro t of €300,000

By producing 2 cars of Car A and 4 cars of Car B, we bolster the pro ts at the factory by €30,000 per mon

We take our consultancy fee and leave the company with €360,000 extra pro t for the factory every year

In the next part, we’ll be making some sausages!

Introduction
Part 1 – Introduction to Linear Programming

Part 2 – Introduction to PuLP

Part 3 – Real world examples – Resourcing Problem

Part 4 – Real world examples – Blending Problem

Part 5 – Using PuLP with pandas and binary constraints to solve a scheduling problem

Part 6 – Mocking conditional statements using binary constraints

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© 2021 Ben Alex Keen All rights reserved

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