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Chapter Seven
1. Describe how binary decision variables are used to represent yes-or-no decisions.
2. Use binary decision variables to formulate constraints for mutually exclusive alterna-
tives and contingent decisions.
3. Formulate a binary integer programming model for the selection of projects.
4. Formulate a binary integer programming model for the selection of sites for facilities.
5. Formulate a binary integer programming model for crew scheduling in the travel
industry.
6. Formulate other basic binary integer programming models from a description of the
problems.
7. Use mixed binary integer programming to deal with setup costs for initiating the pro-
duction of a product.
The preceding chapters have considered various kinds of problems where decisions need to
be made about how much to do of various activities. Thus, the decision variables in the result-
ing model represent the level of the corresponding activities.
We turn now to a common type of problem where, instead of how-much decisions, the
decisions to be made are yes-or-no decisions. A yes-or-no decision arises when a particu-
lar option is being considered and the only possible choices are yes, go ahead with this option,
or no, decline this option.
The natural choice of a decision variable for a yes-or-no decision is a binary variable.
Binary variables are variables whose only possible values are 0 and 1. Thus, when repre-
senting a yes-or-no decision, a binary decision variable is assigned a value of 1 for choos-
ing yes and a value of 0 for choosing no.
Models that fit linear programming except that they use binary decision variables are called
binary integer programming (BIP) models. (We hereafter will use the BIP abbreviation.)
A pure BIP model is one where all the variables are binary variables, whereas a mixed BIP
model is one where only some of the variables are binary variables.
A BIP model can be considered to be a special type of integer programming model. A gen-
eral integer programming model is simply a linear programming model except for also having
constraints that some or all of the decision variables must have integer values (0, 1, 2, . . .). A
BIP model further restricts these integer values to be only 0 or 1.
However, BIP problems are quite different from general integer programming problems
because of the difference in the nature of the decisions involved. Like linear programming
problems, general integer programming problems involve how-much decisions, but where
these decisions make sense only if they have integer values. For example, the TBA Airlines
232
problem presented in Section 3.2 is a general integer programming problem because it is essen-
tially a linear programming problem except that its how-much decisions (how many small air-
planes and how many large airplanes to purchase) only make sense if they have integer values.
By contrast, BIP problems involve yes-or-no decisions instead of how-much decisions.
The preceding chapters already have focused on problems involving how-much decisions
and how such techniques as linear programming or integer programming can be used to ana-
lyze these problems. Therefore, this chapter will be devoted instead to problems involving yes-
or-no decisions and how BIP models can be used to analyze this special category of problems.
BIP problems arise with considerable frequency in a wide variety of applications. To illus-
trate this, we begin with a case study and then present some more examples in the subsequent
sections. One of the supplements to this chapter on the CD-ROM also provides additional
formulation examples for BIP problems.
You will see throughout this chapter that BIP problems can be formulated on a spreadsheet
just as readily as linear programming problems. The Solver also can solve BIP problems of
modest size. You normally will have no problem solving the small BIP problems found in
this book, but Solver may fail on somewhat larger problems. To provide some perspective
on this issue, we include another supplement on the CD-ROM that is entitled Some Perspec-
tives on Solving Binary Integer Programming Problems. The algorithms available for solving
BIP problems (including the one used by Solver) are not nearly as efficient as those for linear
programming, so this supplement discusses some of the difficulties and pitfalls involved in
solving large BIP problems. One option with any large problem that fits linear programming
except that it has decision variables that are restricted to integer values (but not necessarily
just 0 and 1) is to ignore the integer constraints and then to round the solution obtained to
integer values. This is a reasonable option in some cases but not in others. The supplement
emphasizes that this is a particularly dangerous shortcut with BIP problems.
An Application Vignette
With headquarters in Houston, Texas, Waste Management, vehicles. Although the objective function takes several fac-
Inc. (a Fortune 100 company), is the leading provider of com- tors into account, the primary goal is the minimization of
prehensive waste-management services in North America. Its total travel time. The main decision variables are binary vari-
network of operations includes 293 active landfill disposal ables that equal 1 if the route assigned to a particular vehicle
sites, 16 waste-to-energy plants, 72 landfill gas-to-energy includes a particular possible leg and that equal 0 otherwise.
facilities, 146 recycling plants, 346 transfer stations, and 435 A geographical information system (GIS) provides the data
collection operations (depots) to provide services to nearly about the distance and time required to go between any two
20 million residential customers and 2 million commercial points. All of this is imbedded within a Web-based Java appli-
customers throughout the United States and Canada. cation that is integrated with the company’s other systems.
The company’s collection-and-transfer vehicles need to It is estimated that the recent implementation of this
follow nearly 20,000 daily routes. With an annual operating comprehensive route-management system will increase
cost of nearly $120,000 per vehicle, management wanted the company’s cash flow by $648 million over a five-year
to have a comprehensive route-management system that period, largely because of savings of $498 million in opera-
would make every route as profitable and efficient as possi- tional expenses over this same period. It also is providing
ble. Therefore, a management science team that included a better customer service.
number of consultants was formed to attack this problem.
Source: S. Sahoo, S. Kim, B.-I. Kim, B. Krass, and A. Popov, Jr.,
The heart of the route-management system developed “Routing Optimization for Waste Management,” Interfaces 35,
by this team is a huge mixed BIP model that optimizes the no. 1 (January–February 2005), pp. 24–36. (A link to this article is
routes assigned to the respective collection-and-transfer provided on our website, www.mhhe.com/hillier5e.)
effect on how much profit we can get from these investments. The decision to make
$10 million available is only a tentative one. That amount is stretching us, because we now
are investigating some other interesting project proposals that would require quite a bit of
capital, so we would prefer to use less than $10 million on these particular investments if the
last few million don’t buy us much. On the other hand, this expansion into either Los Ange-
les or San Francisco, or maybe both of these key cities, is our number one priority. It will
have a real positive impact on the future of this company. So we are willing to go out and
raise some more capital if it would give us a lot of bang for the buck. Therefore, we would
like you to do some what-if analysis to tell us what the effect would be if we were to change
the amount of capital being made available to anything between $5 million and $15 million.
Steve Chan: Sure, Armando, we do that kind of what-if analysis all the time. We refer to
it as sensitivity analysis because it involves checking how sensitive the outcome is to the
amount of capital being made available.
Armando Ortega: Good. Now, Steve, I need your input within the next couple weeks.
Can you do it?
Steve Chan: Well, Armando, as usual, the one question is whether we can gather all the
necessary data that quickly. We’ll need to get good estimates of the net present value of each
of the possible investments. I’ll need a lot of help in digging out that information.
Armando Ortega: I thought you would say that. I already have my staff working hard on
developing those estimates. I can get you together with them this afternoon.
Steve Chan: Great. I’ll get right on it.
Background
The California Manufacturing Company is a diversified company with several facto-
ries and warehouses throughout California, but none yet in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Because the company is enjoying increasing sales and earnings, management feels that the
time may be ripe to expand into one or both of those prime locations. A basic issue is whether
to build a new factory in either Los Angeles or San Francisco, or perhaps even in both cities.
Management also is considering building at most one new warehouse, but will restrict the
choice of location to a city where a new factory is being built.
The decisions to be made are listed in the second column of Table 7.1 in the form of yes-
or-no questions. In each case, giving an answer of yes to the question corresponds to the
decision to make the investment to build the indicated facility (a factory or a warehouse) in
234
TABLE 7.1
Capital
Data for the California
Decision Yes-or-No Decision Net Present Required
Manufacturing Co.
Number Question Variable Value (Millions) (Millions)
Problem
1 Build a factory in Los Angeles? x1 $8 $6
2 Build a factory in San Francisco? x2 5 3
3 Build a warehouse in Los Angeles? x3 6 5
4 Build a warehouse in San Francisco? x4 4 2
Capital available: $10 million
the indicated location (Los Angeles or San Francisco). The capital required for the investment
is given in the rightmost column, where management has made the tentative decision that
the total amount of capital being made available for all the investments is $10 million. (Note
that this amount is inadequate for some of the combinations of investments.) The fourth col-
umn shows the estimated net present value (net long-run profit considering the time value of
money) if the corresponding investment is made. (The net present value is 0 if the investment
is not made.) Much of the work of Steve Chan’s management science study (with substantial
help from the president’s staff) goes into developing these estimates of the net present values.
As specified by the company’s president, Armando Ortega, the objective now is to find the
feasible combination of investments that maximizes the total net present value.
TABLE 7.2
Binary Decision Variables for the California Manufacturing Co. Problem
236 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
of choosing none of the alternatives, in which case the constraint will set the sum of the cor-
responding binary decision variables equal to 1.
The California Manufacturing Co. problem also has another important kind of restriction.
Management will allow a warehouse to be built in a particular city only if a factory also is
being built in that city. For example, consider the situation for Los Angeles (LA).
If decide no, do not build a factory in LA (i.e., if choose x1 5 0),
then cannot build a warehouse in LA (i.e., must choose x3 5 0).
If decide yes, do build a factory in LA (i.e., if choose x1 5 1),
then can either build a warehouse in LA or not (i.e., can choose either x3 5 1 or 0).
How can these interrelationships between the factory and warehouse decisions for LA be
expressed in a constraint for a mathematical model? The key is to note that, for either value of
x1, the permissible value or values of x3 are less than or equal to x1. Since x1 and x3 are binary
variables, the constraint
x3 # x1
forces x3 to take on a permissible value given the value of x1.
Exactly the same reasoning leads to
x4 # x2
as the corresponding constraint for San Francisco. Just as for Los Angeles, this constraint
forces having no warehouse in San Francisco (x4 5 0) if a factory will not be built there
(x2 5 0), whereas going ahead with the factory there (x2 5 1) leaves open the decision to build
the warehouse there (x4 5 0 or 1).
One yes-or-no decision is For either city, the warehouse decision is referred to as a contingent decision, because
contingent on another yes- the decision depends on a prior decision regarding whether to build a factory there. In general,
or-no decision if the first one yes-or-no decision is said to be contingent on another yes-or-no decision if it is allowed to
one is allowed to be yes
only if the other one is yes.
be yes only if the other is yes. As above, the mathematical constraint expressing this relation-
ship requires that the binary variable for the former decision must be less than or equal to the
binary variable for the latter decision.
The rightmost column of Table 7.1 reveals one more interrelationship between the four
decisions, namely, that the amount of capital expended on the four facilities under consid-
eration cannot exceed the amount available ($10 million). Therefore, the model needs to
include a constraint that requires
Capital expended # $10 million
How can the amount of capital expended be expressed in terms of the four binary decision vari-
ables? To start this process, consider the first yes-or-no decision (build a factory in Los Angeles?).
Combining the information in the rightmost column of Table 7.1 and the first row of Table 7.2,
$6 million if x1 5 1
Capital expended on factory in Los Angeles 5 b
0 if x1 5 0
5 $6 million times x1
By the same reasoning, the amount of capital expended on the other three investment oppor-
tunities (in units of millions of dollars) is 3x2, 5x3, and 2x4, respectively. Consequently,
Excel Tip: Beware that Capital expended 5 6x1 1 3x2 1 5x3 1 2x4 (in millions of dollars)
rounding errors can occur
with Excel. Therefore, even Therefore, the constraint becomes
when you add a constraint
that a changing cell has to 6x1 1 3x2 1 5x3 1 2x4 # 10
be binary, Excel occasion-
ally will return a noninteger
value very close to an inte- The BIP Model
ger (e.g., 1.23E-10, meaning As indicated by Armando Ortega in his conversation with Steve Chan, management’s objec-
0.000000000123). When this tive is to find the feasible combination of investments that maximizes the total net present
happens, you can replace the value of these investments. Thus, the value of the objective function should be
noninteger value with the
proper integer value. NPV 5 Total net present value
FIGURE 7.1 A B C D E F G
A spreadsheet formula-
tion of the BIP model
1 California Manufacturing Co. Facility Location Problem
for the California Manu- 2
facturing Co. case study 3 NPV ($millions) LA SF
where the changing cells 4 Warehouse 6 4
BuildFactory? (C18:D18)
5
and BuildWarehouse?
(C16:D16) give the opti- 6 Factory 8 5
mal solution obtained by 7
Solver. 8 Capital Required
9 ($millions) LA SF
10 Warehouse 5 2 Capital Capital
11 Spent Available
12 Factory 6 3 9 ? 10
13
14 Total Maximum
15 Build? LA SF Warehouses Warehouses
16 Warehouse 0 0 0 ? 1
17 ? ?
18 Factory 1 1
19
20 Total NPV ($millions) $13
Solver Parameters E
Set Objective Cell: TotalNPV
To: Max 10 Capital
By Changing Variable Cells: 11 Spent
BuildWarehouse?, BuildFactory?
Subject to the Constraints: 12 = SUMPRODUCT(CapitalRequired,Build?)
BuildFactory? = binary 13
BuildWarehouse? = binary
BuildWarehouse? <= BuildFactory? 14 Total
CapitalSpent <= CapitalAvailable
15 Warehouses
TotalWarehouses <= MaxWarehouses
16 = SUM(BuildWarehouse?)
Solver Options:
Make Variables Nonnegative
Solving Method: Simplex LP Range Name Cells
Excel Tip: In the Solver Build? C16:D18
Options, the Integer Opti- BuildWarehouse? C16:D16
mality (%) setting (1 percent BuildFactory? C18:D18
by default) causes Solver CapitalAvailable G12
to stop solving an integer CapitalRequired C10:D12
programming problem when CapitalSpent E12
it finds a feasible solution MaxWarehouses G16
whose objective function NPV C4:D6
value is within the specified TotalNPV D20
percentage of being opti- TotalWarehouses E16
mal. (In RSPE, this option
is called Integer Tolerance C D
and is found in the Engine 20 Total NPV ($millions) =SUMPRODUCT(NPV,Build?)
tab of the Model pane.) This
is useful for very large BIP
problems since it may enable If the investment is made to build a particular facility (so that the corresponding decision
finding a near-optimal solu- variable has a value of 1), the estimated net present value from that investment is given in the
tion when finding an optimal fourth column of Table 7.1. If the investment is not made (so the decision variable equals 0),
solution in a reasonable
the net present value is 0. Therefore, continuing to use units of millions of dollars,
period of time is not pos-
sible. For smaller problems NPV 5 8x1 1 5x2 1 6x3 1 4x4
(e.g., all the problems in this
book), this option should be is the quantity to enter into the objective cell to be maximized.
set to 0 to guarantee finding Incorporating the constraints developed in the preceding subsection, the complete BIP model
an optimal solution. then is shown in Figure 7.1. The format is basically the same as for linear programming models.
238 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
The one key difference arises when using Solver. Each of the decision variables (cells C18:D18
and C16:D16) is constrained to be binary. In Excel’s Solver, this is accomplished in the Add
Constraint dialog box by choosing each range of changing cells as the left-hand side and then
choosing bin from the pop-up menu. In RSPE, this is accomplished by selecting each range of
changing cells, and then under the Constraints menu on the RSPE ribbon, choose Binary in the
Variable Type/Bound submenu. The other constraints shown in Solver (see the lower left-hand
Note how helpful the range side of Figure 7.1) have been made quite intuitive by using the suggestive range names given in
names are for interpreting the lower right-hand side of the figure. For convenience, the equations entered into the output
this BIP spreadsheet model.
cells in E12 and D20 use a SUMPRODUCT function that includes C17:D17 and either C11:D11
or C5:D5 because the blanks or # signs in these rows are interpreted as zeroes by Solver.
Solver gives the optimal solution shown in C18:D18 and C16:D16 of the spreadsheet,
namely, build factories in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, but do not build any ware-
houses. The objective cell (D20) indicates that the total net present value from building these
two factories is estimated to be $13 million.
Management’s Conclusion
Steve Chan’s report is delivered to Armando Ortega within the two-week deadline. The report
recommends the plan presented in Figure 7.1 (build a factory in both Los Angeles and San
Francisco but no warehouses) if management decides to stick with its tentative decision to
make $10 million of capital available for these investments. One advantage of this plan is that
it only uses $9 million of this capital, which frees up $1 million of capital for other project
proposals currently being investigated. The report also highlights the results shown in Fig-
ure 7.2 while emphasizing two points. One is that a heavy penalty would be paid (a reduction
7.2 Using BIP for Project Selection: The Tazer Corp. Problem 239
FIGURE 7.2 A B C D E F
The parameter analysis 1 CapitalAvailable BuildWarehouseLA? BuildWarehouseSF? BuildFactoryLA? BuildFactorySF? TotalINPV
2 5 0 1 0 1 9
report generated by RSPE 3 6 0 1 0 1 9
that shows the effect 4 7 0 1 0 1 9
on the optimal solution 5 8 0 1 0 1 9
and the resulting total 6 9 0 0 1 1 13
7 10 0 0 1 1 13
net present value of sys- 8 11 0 1 1 1 17
tematically varying the 9 12 0 1 1 1 17
amount of capital being 10 13 0 1 1 1 17
made available for these 11 14 1 0 1 1 19
12 15 1 0 1 1 19
investments.
in the total net present value from $13 million to $9 million) if the amount of capital being
made available were to be reduced below $9 million. The other is that increasing the amount
of capital being made available by just $1 million (from $10 million to $11 million) would
enable a substantial increase of $4 million in the total net present value (from $13 million to
$17 million). However, a much larger further increase in the amount of capital being made
available (from $11 million to $14 million) would be needed to enable a considerably smaller
further increase in the total net present value (from $17 million to $19 million).
Armando Ortega deliberates with other members of top management before making a
decision. It is quickly concluded that increasing the amount of capital being made available
all the way up to $14 million would be stretching the company’s financial resources too
dangerously to justify the relatively small payoff. However, there is considerable discussion
of the pros and cons of the two options of using either $9 million or $11 million of capital.
Because of the large payoff from the latter option (an additional $4 million in total net pres-
ent value), management finally decides to adopt the plan presented in row 8 of Figure 7.2.
Thus, the company will build new factories in both Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as
a new warehouse in San Francisco, with an estimated total net present value of $17 million.
However, because of the large capital requirements of this plan, management also decides to
defer building the warehouse until the two factories are completed so that their profits can
help finance the construction of the warehouse.
Review 1. What are the four interrelated decisions that need to be made by the management of the
Questions California Manufacturing Co.?
2. Why are binary decision variables appropriate to represent these decisions?
3. What is the objective specified by management for this problem?
4. What are the mutually exclusive alternatives in this problem? What is the form of the resulting
constraint in the BIP model?
5. What are the contingent decisions in this problem? For each one, what is the form of the
resulting constraint in the BIP model?
6. What is the tentative managerial decision on which sensitivity analysis needs to be performed?
7.2 USING BIP FOR PROJECT SELECTION: THE TAZER CORP. PROBLEM
The California Manufacturing Co. case study focused on four proposed projects: (1) build
a factory in Los Angeles, (2) build a factory in San Francisco, (3) build a warehouse in Los
Angeles, and (4) build a warehouse in San Francisco. Management needed to make yes-or-no
decisions about which of these projects to select. This is typical of many applications of BIP.
However, the nature of the projects may vary considerably from one application to the next.
Instead of the proposed construction projects in the case study, our next example involves the
selection of research and development projects.
This example is adapted from both Case 3-7 and its continuation in the supplement to
Chapter 13, but all the relevant information is repeated below.
240 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
An Application Vignette
The Midwest Independent Transmission Operator, Inc. model to set electricity output levels and establish prices
(MISO) is a nonprofit organization formed in 1998 to for electricity trades.
administer the generation and transmission of electricity The mixed BIP model is a massive one with about
throughout the midwestern United States. It serves over 3,300,000 continuous variables, 450,000 binary variables,
40 million customers (both individuals and businesses) and 3,900,000 functional constraints. A special technique
through its control of nearly 60,000 miles of high-voltage (Lagrangian relaxation) is used to solve such a huge model.
transmission lines and more than 1,000 power plants capa- This innovative application of management science
ble of generating 146,000 megawatts of electricity. This yielded savings of approximately $2.5 billion over the four
infrastructure spans 13 midwestern states plus the Cana- years from 2007 to 2010, with an additional savings of
dian province of Manitoba. about $7 billion expected through 2020. These dramatic
The key mission of any regional transmission organi- results led to MISO winning the prestigious first prize in
zation is to reliably and efficiently provide the electricity the 2011 international competition for the Franz Edelman
needed by its customers. MISO transformed the way this Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the
was done by using mixed binary integer programming to Management Sciences.
minimize the total cost of providing the needed electricity.
Each main binary variable in the model represents a yes-or- Source: B. Carlson and 12 co-authors, “MISO Unlocks Billions
in Savings through the Application of Operations Research for
no decision about whether a particular power plant should Energy and Ancillary Services Markets,” Interfaces 42,
be on during a particular time period. After solving this no. 1 (January–February 2012), pp. 58–73. (A link to this article is
model, the results are then fed into a linear programming provided on our website, www.mhhe.com/hillier5e.)
Referring to the first row of Table 7.3, this constraint can be expressed in terms of the deci-
sion variables as
400x1 1 300x2 1 600x3 1 500x4 1 200x5 # 1,200
With this background, the stage now is set for formulating a BIP spreadsheet model for
this problem.
Review 1. How are binary variables used to represent managerial decisions on which projects from a
Questions group of proposed projects should be selected for approval?
2. What types of projects are under consideration in the Tazer Corp. problem?
3. What is the objective for this problem?
7.3 USING BIP FOR THE SELECTION OF SITES FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES
FACILITIES: THE CALIENTE CITY PROBLEM
Although the problem encountered in the California Manufacturing Co. case study can be
described as a project selection problem (as was done at the beginning of the preceding sec-
tion), it could just as well have been called a site selection problem. Recall that the company’s
management needed to select a site (Los Angeles or San Francisco) for its new factory as
241
242 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
FIGURE 7.3
A spreadsheet formulation of the BIP model for the Tazer Corp. project selection problem where the changing cells DoProject?
(C10:G10) give the optimal solution obtained by Solver.
A B C D E F G H I J
1 Tazer Corp. Project Selection Problem
2
3
4 Up Stable Choice Hope Release Total Budget
5 R&D Investment ($million) 400 300 600 500 200 1,200 <= 1,200
6 Success Rate 50% 35% 35% 20% 45%
7 Revenue If Successful ($million) 1,400 1,200 2,200 3,000 600
8 Expected Profit ($million) 300 120 170 100 70 540
9
10 Do Project? 1 0 1 0 1
B C D E F G
8 Expected Profit ($million) =C7*C6-C5 =D7*D6-D5 =E7*E6-E5 =F7*F6-F5 =G7*G6-G5
Solver Parameters
Set Objective Cell: TotalExpectedProfit
To: Max
By Changing Variable Cells:
DoProject?
Subject to the Constraints:
DoProject? = binary
TotalRandD <= Budget
Solver Options:
Make Variables Nonnegative
Solving Method: Simplex LP
well as for its possible new warehouse. For either of the possible sites for the new factory (or
the warehouse), there is a yes-or-no decision for whether that site should be selected, so it
becomes natural to represent each such decision by a binary decision variable.
Various kinds of site selection problems are one of the most common types of applications
of BIP. The kinds of facilities for which sites need to be selected can be of any type. In some
cases, several sites are to be selected for several facilities of a particular type, whereas only a
single site is to be selected in other cases.
We will focus here on the selection of sites for emergency services facilities. These facili-
ties might be fire stations, police stations, ambulance centers, and so forth. In any of these
cases, the overriding concern commonly is to provide facilities close enough to each part of
the area being served that the response time to an emergency anywhere in the area will be suf-
ficiently small. The form of the BIP model then will be basically the same regardless of the
specific type of emergency services being considered.
To illustrate, let us consider an example where sites are being selected for fire stations. For
simplicity, this example will divide the area being served into only eight tracts instead of the
many dozens or hundreds that would be typical in real applications.
7.3 Using BIP for the Selection of Sites for Emergency Services Facilities: The Caliente City Problem 243
TABLE 7.4 Response Time and Cost Data for the Caliente City Problem
244 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
Since the objective is to minimize the total cost of the fire stations that will satisfy the city
council’s new policy on response times, the total cost needs to be expressed in terms of these
decision variables. Using units of thousands of dollars while referring to the bottom row of
Table 7.4, the total cost is
C 5 350x1 1 250x2 1 450x3 1 300x4 1 50x5 1 400x6 1 300x7 1 200x8
We also need to formulate constraints in terms of these decision variables that will ensure
that no response times exceed 10 minutes. For example, consider tract 1. When a fire occurs
there, the row for tract 1 in Table 7.4 indicates that the only tracts close enough that a fire
station would provide a response time not exceeding 10 minutes are tract 1 itself, tract 2, and
tract 4. Thus, at least one of these three tracts needs to have a fire station. This requirement is
expressed in the constraint
x1 1 x2 1 x4 $ 1
This constraint ensures that Incidentally, this constraint is called a set covering constraint because it covers the
the response time for a fire requirement of having a fire station located in at least one member of the set of tracts (tracts 1,
in tract 1 will be no more 2, and 4) that are within 10 minutes of tract 1. In general, any constraint where a sum of binary
than 10 minutes.
variables is required to be greater-than-or-equal-to one is referred to as a set covering constraint.
Applying the above reasoning for tract 1 to all the tracts leads to the following
constraints.
These set covering constraints (along with requiring the variables to be binary) are all that is
needed to ensure that each tract has at least one fire station close enough to respond to a fire
in no more than 10 minutes.
This type of BIP model (minimizing total cost where all the functional constraints are set
covering constraints) is called a set covering problem. Such problems arise fairly fre-
quently. In fact, you will see another example of a set covering problem in Section 7.4.
Having identified the nature of the constraints for the Caliente City problem, it now is
fairly straightforward to formulate its BIP spreadsheet model.
7.3 Using BIP for the Selection of Sites for Emergency Services Facilities: The Caliente City Problem 245
FIGURE 7.4
A spreadsheet formulation of the BIP model for the Caliente City site selection problem where the changing cells StationInTract?
(D29:K29) show the optimal solution obtained by Solver.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
1 Caliente City Fire Station Location Problem
2
3 Fire Station in Tract
4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
5 1 2 8 18 9 23 22 16 28
6 Response 2 9 3 10 12 16 14 21 25
7 Times 3 17 8 4 20 21 8 22 17
8 (minutes) 4 10 13 19 2 18 21 6 12
9 for a Fire 5 21 12 16 13 5 11 9 12
10 in Tract 6 25 15 7 21 15 3 14 8
11 7 14 22 18 7 13 15 2 9
12 8 30 24 15 14 17 9 8 3
13
14 Cost of Station 350 250 450 300 50 400 300 200
15 ($thousands) Number
16 Covering
17 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 >= 1
18 Response 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 >= 1
19 Time 3 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 >= 1
20 <= 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 >= 1
21 10 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 >= 1
22 Minutes? 6 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 >= 1
23 7 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 2 >= 1
24 8 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 >= 1
25
26 Total
27 Fire Station in Tract Cost
28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ($thousands)
29 Station in Tract? 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 750
J K L
15 Number
16 Covering
17 =IF(J5<=MaxResponseTime,1,0) =IF(K5<=MaxResponseTime,1,0) =SUMPRODUCT(D17:K17,StationInTract?)
18 =IF(J6<=MaxResponseTime,1,0) =IF(K6<=MaxResponseTime,1,0) =SUMPRODUCT(D18:K18,StationInTract?)
19 =IF(J7<=MaxResponseTime,1,0) =IF(K7<=MaxResponseTime,1,0) =SUMPRODUCT(D19:K19,StationInTract?)
Solver Parameters
Set Objective Cell: TotalCost
To: Min Range Name Cells
By Changing Variable Cells:
StationInTract? CostOfStation D14:K14
Subject to the Constraints: MaxResponseTime B21
StationInTract? = binary
NumberCovering >= One NumberCovering L17:L24
One N17:N24
Solver Options: ResponseTime D5:K12
Make Variables Nonnegative
Solving Method: Simplex LP StationInTract? D29:K29
TotalCost N29
N
26 Total
27 Cost
28 ($thousands)
29 =SUMPRODUCT(CostOfStation,StationInTract?)
246 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
Review 1. How are binary variables used to represent managerial decisions regarding which site or sites
Questions should be selected for new facilities?
2. What are some types of emergency services facilities for which sites may need to be selected?
3. What was the objective for the Caliente City problem?
4. What is a set covering constraint and what is a set covering problem?
An Application Vignette
Netherlands Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen Reizigers) The new timetable was launched in December 2006,
is the main Dutch railway operator of passenger trains. along with a new system for scheduling the allocation of
In this densely populated country, about 5,500 passenger rolling-stock units (various kinds of passenger cars and
trains currently transport approximately 1.1 million passen- other train units) to the trains meeting this timetable. A
gers on an average workday. The company’s operating rev- new system also was implemented for scheduling the
enues are approximately 1.5 billion euros (approximately assignment of crews (with a driver and a number of con-
$2 billion) per year. ductors in each crew) to the trains. Binary integer program-
The amount of passenger transport on the Dutch rail- ming and related techniques were used to do all of this. For
way network has steadily increased over the years, so a example, the BIP model used for crew scheduling closely
national study in 2002 concluded that three major infra- resembles (except for its vastly larger size) the one shown
structure extensions should be undertaken. As a result, in this section for the Southwestern Airlines problem.
a new national timetable for the Dutch railway system, This application of management science immediately
specifying the planned departure and arrival times of every resulted in an additional annual profit of approximately
train at every station, would need to be developed. There- $60 million for the company and this additional profit is
fore, the management of Netherlands Railways directed expected to increase to $105 million annually in the coming
that an extensive management science study should be years. These dramatic results led to Netherlands Railways
conducted over the next few years to develop an optimal winning the prestigious First Prize in the 2008 international
overall plan for both the new timetable and the usage of competition for the Franz Edelman Award for Achievement
the available resources (rolling-stock units and train crews) in Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
for meeting this timetable. A task force consisting of sev-
eral members of the company’s Department of Logistics Source: L. Kroon, D. Huisman, E. Abbink, P.-J. Fioole, M. Fischetti,
G. Maróti, A. Schrijver, A. Steenbeck, and R. Ybema, “The New
and several prominent management science scholars from Dutch Timetable: The OR Revolution,” Interfaces 39,
European universities or a software company was formed no. 1 (January–February 2009), pp. 6–17. (A link to this article is
to conduct this study. provided on our website, www.mhhe.com/hillier5e.)
Flight 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1. San Francisco to Los Angeles 1 1 1 1
(SFO–LAX)
2. San Francisco to Denver 1 1 1 1
(SFO–DEN)
3. San Francisco to Seattle 1 1 1 1
(SFO–SEA)
4. Los Angeles to Chicago 2 2 3 2 3
(LAX–ORD)
5. Los Angeles to San Francisco 2 3 5 5
(LAX–SFO)
6. Chicago to Denver 3 3 4
(ORD–DEN)
7. Chicago to Seattle 3 3 3 3 4
(ORD–SEA)
8. Denver to San Francisco 2 4 4 5
(DEN–SFO)
9. Denver to Chicago 2 2 2
(DEN–ORD)
10. Seattle to San Francisco 2 4 4 5
(SEA–SFO)
11. Seattle to Los Angeles 2 2 4 4 2
(SEA–LAX)
Cost, $1,000s 2 3 4 6 7 5 7 8 9 9 8 9
248 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
7.4 Using BIP for Crew Scheduling: The Southwestern Airways Problem 249
FIGURE 7.6
A spreadsheet formulation of the BIP model for the Southwestern Airways crew scheduling problem, where FlySequence (C22:N22)
shows the optimal solution obtained by Solver. The list of flight sequences under consideration is given in cells A25:D37.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
1 Southwestern Airways Crew Scheduling Problem
2
3 Flight Sequence
4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
5 Cost ($thousands) 2 3 4 6 7 5 7 8 9 9 8 9 At
6 Least
7 Includes Segment? Total One
8 SFO–LAX 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 ≥ 1
9 SFO–DEN 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 ≥ 1
10 SFO–SEA 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 ≥ 1
11 LAX–ORD 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 ≥ 1
12 LAX–SFO 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 ≥ 1
13 ORD–DEN 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 ≥ 1
14 ORD–SEA 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 ≥ 1
15 DEN–SFO 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 ≥ 1
16 DEN–ORD 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 ≥ 1
17 SEA–SFO 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 ≥ 1
18 SEA–LAX 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 ≥ 1
19
20 Total Number
21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Sequences of Crews
22 Fly Sequence? 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 ≤ 3
23
24 Total Cost ($thousands) 18
25 Flight Sequence Key Solver Parameters O
26 1 SFO-LAX Set Objective Cell: TotalCost
To: Min 7 Total
27 2 SFO-DEN-SFO By Changing Variable Cells:
FlySequence? 8 =SUMPRODUCT(C8:N8,FlySequence?)
28 3 SFO-SEA-SFO
Subject to the Constraints: 9 =SUMPRODUCT(C9:N9,FlySequence?)
29 4 SFO-LAX-ORD-DEN-SFO FlySequence? = binary
Total >= AtLeastOne 10 =SUMPRODUCT(C10:N10,FlySequence?)
30 5 SFO-DEN-ORD-DEN-SFO TotalSequences <= NumberOfCrews
11 =SUMPRODUCT(C11:N11,FlySequence?)
31 6 SFO-SEA-LAX-SFO
Solver Options:
32 7 SFO-LAX-ORD-SEA-SFO Make Variables Nonnegative 12 =SUMPRODUCT(C12:N12,FlySequence?)
Solving Method: Simplex LP 13 =SUMPRODUCT(C13:N13,FlySequence?)
33 8 SFO-DEN-ORD-SEA-SFO
34 9 SFO-SEA-LAX-ORD-DEN-SFO 14 =SUMPRODUCT(C14:N14,FlySequence?)
35 10 SFO-LAX-ORD-SEA-LAX-SFO 15 =SUMPRODUCT(C15:N15,FlySequence?)
36 11 SFO-DEN-ORD-SEA-LAX-SFO 16 =SUMPRODUCT(C16:N16,FlySequence?)
37 12 SFO-SEA-LAX-ORD-SEA-SFO 17 =SUMPRODUCT(C17:N17,FlySequence?)
18 =SUMPRODUCT(C18:N18,FlySequence?)
Range Name Cells
19
AtLeastOne Q8:Q18
Cost C5:N5 20 Total
FlySequence? C22:N22 21 Sequences
IncludesSegment? C8:N18
NumberOfCrews Q22 22 =SUM(FlySequence?)
Total O8:O18 P Q
TotalCost Q24
TotalSequences O22 24 Total Cost ($thousands) =SUMPRODUCT(Cost,FlySequence?)
250 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
Many airlines are solving We should point out that this BIP model is a tiny one compared to the ones typically used
huge BIP models of this in actual practice. Airline crew scheduling problems involving thousands of possible flight
kind.
sequences now are being solved by using models similar to the one shown above but with
thousands of binary variables rather than just a dozen.
Review 1. What is the crew scheduling problem that is encountered by companies in the travel industry?
Questions 2. What are the yes-or-no decisions that need to be made when addressing a crew scheduling
problem?
3. For the Southwestern Airways problem, there is a constraint for each flight to ensure that this
flight is covered by a crew. Describe the mathematical form of this constraint. Then explain in
words what this constraint is saying.
7.5 USING MIXED BIP TO DEAL WITH SETUP COSTS FOR INITIATING
PRODUCTION: THE REVISED WYNDOR PROBLEM
All of the examples considered thus far in this chapter have been pure BIP problems (prob-
lems where all the decision variables are binary variables). However, mixed BIP problems
(problems where only some of the decision variables are binary variables) also arise quite
frequently because only some of the decisions to be made are yes-or-no decisions and the rest
are how-much decisions.
One important example of this type is the product-mix problem introduced in Chapter 2,
but now with the added complication that a setup cost must be incurred to initiate the pro-
duction of each product. Therefore, in addition to the how-much decisions of how much to
produce of each product, there also is a prior yes-or-no decision for each product of whether
to perform a setup to enable initiating its production.
To illustrate this type of problem, we will consider a revised version of the Wyndor Glass
Co. product-mix problem that was described in Section 2.1 and analyzed throughout most of
Chapter 2.
7.5 Using Mixed BIP to Deal with Setup Costs for Initiating Production: The Revised Wyndor Problem 251
0 2 4 6 8 D
Production quantity for doors
now gives a smaller value of P. The reason that this original solution (which gave P 5 3,600
for the original problem) is no longer optimal is that the setup costs reduce the total net profit
so much:
P 5 3,600 2 700 2 1,300 5 1,600
Therefore, the graphical method for linear programming can no longer be used to find the
optimal solution for this new problem with setup costs.
How can we formulate a model for this problem so that it fits a standard kind of model that
can be solved by Solver? Table 7.6 shows that the net profit for either product is no longer
directly proportional to the number of units produced. Therefore, as it stands, the problem no
longer fits either linear programming or BIP. Before, for the original problem without setup
costs, the objective function was simply P 5 300D 1 500W. Now we need to subtract from
this expression each setup cost if the corresponding product will be produced, but we should
not subtract the setup cost if the product will not be produced. This is where binary variables
come to the rescue.
An Application Vignette
Prior to its merger with United Airlines in 2010, Continental are binary variables and the rest are general integer vari-
Airlines was a major United States air carrier that trans- ables). In its first year of use (mainly in 2001), the model
ported passengers, cargo, and mail. It operated more than was applied four times to recover from major schedule
2,000 daily departures to well over 100 domestic destina- disruptions (two snowstorms, a flood, and the September
tions and nearly 100 foreign destinations. 11 terrorist attacks). This led to savings of approximately
Airlines like Continental face schedule disruptions daily $40 million. Subsequent applications extended to many
because of unexpected events, including inclement weather, daily minor disruptions as well.
aircraft mechanical problems, and crew unavailability. Although other airlines subsequently scrambled to apply
Another consequence of such disruptions is that crews may management science in a similar way, this initial advantage
not be in positions to service their remaining scheduled over other airlines in being able to recover more quickly
flights. Airlines must reassign crews quickly to cover open from schedule disruptions with fewer delays and cancelled
flights and to return them to their original schedules in a flights left Continental Airlines in a relatively strong posi-
cost-effective manner while honoring all government regula- tion as the airline industry struggled through a difficult
tions, contractual obligations, and quality-of-life requirements. period during the initial years of the 21st century. This ini-
To address such problems, a management science tiative led to Continental winning the prestigious First Prize
team at Continental Airlines developed a detailed mixed in the 2002 international competition for the Franz Edel-
BIP model for reassigning crews to flights as soon as such man Award for Achievement in Operations Research and
emergencies arise. Because the airline has thousands of the Management Sciences.
crews and daily flights, the model needed to be huge to
consider all possible pairings of crews with flights. There- Source: G. Yu, M. Argüello, C. Song, S. M. McGowan, and
A. White, “A New Era for Crew Recovery at Continental Airlines,”
fore, the model has millions of decision variables and many Interfaces 33, no. 1 (January–February 2003), pp. 5–22. (A link to
thousands of constraints. (Most of these decision variables this article is provided on our website, www.mhhe.com/hillier5e.)
associate each value of the binary variable with one of the two possibilities for the setup cost.
In particular, let
7.5 Using Mixed BIP to Deal with Setup Costs for Initiating Production: The Revised Wyndor Problem 253
(If y1 5 1, no restrictions are placed on D other than those already imposed by the other con-
straints, and the same thing applies to W if y2 5 0.)
It is possible with Excel to use the IF function to represent this relationship between y1 and
D and between y2 and W. Unfortunately, the IF function does not fit the assumptions of linear
programming. Consequently, Solver has difficulty solving spreadsheet models that use this
function. This is why another formulation with ordinary linear programming constraints is
needed instead to express these relationships.
Since the other constraints impose bounds on D and W of 0 # D # 4 and 0 # W # 6, here
are some ordinary linear programming constraints that ensure these relationships:
D # 4y1
W # 6y2
These constraints force the Note that setting y1 5 0 gives D # 0, which forces the nonnegative D to be D 5 0, whereas
model to refuse production setting y1 5 1 gives D # 4, which allows all the values of D already allowed by the other
if the corresponding setup
constraints. Then check that the same conclusions apply for W when setting y2 5 0 and
is not performed.
y2 5 1.
It was not necessary to choose 4 and 6 for the respective coefficients of y1 and y2 in these
two constraints. Any coefficients larger than 4 and 6 would have the same effect. You just
need to avoid smaller coefficients, since this would impose undesired restrictions on D and W
when y1 5 1 and y2 5 1.
If a how-much decision x can On larger problems, it is sometimes difficult to determine the smallest acceptable coef-
only be done (i.e., x . 0) if ficients for these binary variables. Therefore, it is common to formulate the model by just
a corresponding yes-no deci-
using a reasonably large number (say, 99 in this case) that is safely larger than the smallest
sion y is done (i.e., y 5 1),
this can be enforced with a acceptable coefficient.
big-number constraint such With this background, we now are ready to formulate a mixed BIP spreadsheet model for
as x # 99y. If y 5 0, this this problem that uses the number 99 in these constraints.
becomes x # 0. If y 5 1,
then this becomes x # 99.
The big number (99 in this A Mixed BIP Spreadsheet Model for the Revised Wyndor Problem
example) is chosen to be big Figure 7.8 shows one way of formulating this model. The format for the first 14 rows is
enough so that it is safely the same as for the original Wyndor problem, so the difference arises in rows 15–17 of
larger than x could ever
the spreadsheet. The values of the binary variables, y1 and y2, appear in the new chang-
become.
ing cells, Setup? (C17:D17). The bottom of the figure identifies the equations entered into
the output cells in row 16, C16 5 99*C17 and D16 5 99*D17. Consequently, the con-
straints, UnitsProduced (C14:D14) # OnlyIfSetup (C16:D16), impose the relationships that
D # 99y1 and W # 99y2.
The changing cells in this spreadsheet show the optimal solution obtained after apply-
ing Solver. Thus, this solution is to not produce any doors (y1 5 0 and D 5 0) but to per-
form the setup to enable producing 6 windows (y2 5 1 and W 5 6) to obtain a net profit
of $1,700.
Note that this optimal solution does indeed satisfy the requirements that D 5 0 must hold
when y1 5 0 and that W . 0 can hold when y2 5 1. The constraints do permit performing a
setup to produce a product and then not producing any units (y1 5 1 with D 5 0 or y2 5 1
with W 5 0), but the objective function causes an optimal solution automatically to avoid this
foolish option of incurring the setup cost for no purpose.
Review 1. How does a mixed BIP problem differ from a pure BIP problem?
Questions 2. Why is a linear programming formulation no longer valid for a product-mix problem when
there are setup costs for initiating production?
3. How can a binary variable be defined in terms of whether a setup is performed to initiate the
production of a certain product?
4. What caused the optimal solution for the revised Wyndor problem to differ from that for the
original Wyndor problem?
254 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
FIGURE 7.8 A B C D E F G H
A spreadsheet model
for the revised Wyndor 1 Wyndor Glass Co. Product-Mix with Setup Costs
problem, where Solver 2
gives the optimal solu- 3 Doors Windows
tion shown in the chang- 4 Unit Profit $300 $500
ing cells, UnitsProduced
(C14:D14) and Setup? 5 Setup Cost $700 $1,300
(C17:D17). 6
7 Hours Hours
8 Hours Used per Unit Produced Used Available
9 Plant 1 1 0 0 ≤ 4
10 Plant 2 0 2 12 ≤ 12
11 Plant 3 3 2 12 ≤ 18
12
13 Doors Windows
14 Units Prod'd 0 6
15 ≤ ≤ Production Profit $3,000
16 Only if Set Up 0 99 −Total Setup Cost $1,300
17 Setup? 0 1 Total Profit $1,700
Solver Parameters
Range Name Cells
Set Objective Cell: TotalProfit
To: Max HoursAvailable G9:G11
By Changing Variable Cells: HoursUsed E9:E11
UnitsProduced, Setup? HoursUsedPerUnitProduced C9:D11
Subject to the Constraints: OnlyIfSetUp C16:D16
Setup? = binary
ProductionProfit H15
UnitsProduced = integer
Setup? C17:D17
HoursUsed <= HoursAvailable
UnitsProduced <= OnlyIfSetup SetupCost C5:D5
TotalProfit H17
Solver Options: TotalSetupCost H16
Make Variables Nonnegative UnitProfit C4:D4
Solving Method: Simplex LP UnitsProduced C14:D14
E
7 Hours
8 Used
9 =SUMPRODUCT(C9:D9,UnitsProduced)
10 =SUMPRODUCT(C10:D10,UnitsProduced)
11 =SUMPRODUCT(C11:D11,UnitsProduced)
B C D
16 Only if Set Up =99*C17 =99*D17
G H
15 Production Profit =SUMPRODUCT(UnitProfit,UnitsProduced)
16 −Total Setup Cost =SUMPRODUCT(SetupCost,Setup?)
17 Total Profit =ProductionProfit − TotalSetupCost
7.6 Summary Managers frequently must make yes-or-no decisions, where the only two possible choices are yes, go
ahead with a particular option, or no, decline this option. A binary integer programming (BIP) model
considers many options simultaneously, with a binary decision variable for each option. Mixed BIP
models include some continuous decision variables as well.
The California Manufacturing Co. case study involves yes-or-no decisions on whether a new factory
should be built in certain cities and then whether a new warehouse also should be built in certain cities.
This case study also introduced the modeling of mutually exclusive alternatives and contingent deci-
sions, as well as the performance of sensitivity analysis for BIP models.
Many companies have saved millions of dollars by formulating and solving BIP models for a wide
variety of applications. We have described and illustrated some of the most important types, including
the selection of projects (e.g., research and development projects), the selection of sites for facilities
(e.g., emergency services facilities such as fire stations), and crew scheduling in the travel industry (e.g.,
airlines). We also have discussed how to use mixed BIP to deal with setup costs for initiating production
when addressing product-mix problems.
Glossary binary decision variable A binary variable mutually exclusive alternatives A group
that represents a yes-or-no decision by assigning of alternatives where choosing any one alterna-
a value of 1 for choosing yes and a value of 0 for tive excludes choosing any of the others.
choosing no. (Introduction), 232 (Section 7.1), 235
binary integer programming A type of prob- pure BIP model A BIP model where all the
lem or model that fits linear programming variables are restricted to be binary variables.
except that it uses binary decision variables. (Introduction), 232
(Introduction), 232 set covering constraint A constraint that
binary variable A variable whose only pos- requires the sum of certain binary variables to be
sible values are 0 and 1. (Introduction), 232 greater than or equal to 1. (Section 7.3), 244
BIP Abbreviation for binary integer program- set covering problem A type of BIP model
ming. (Introduction), 232 where the objective is to minimize some
contingent decision A yes-or-no decision quantity such as total cost and all the functional
is a contingent decision if it can be yes only if constraints are set covering constraints.
a certain other yes-or-no decision is yes. (Section 7.3), 244
(Section 7.1), 236 yes-or-no decision A decision whose only
mixed BIP model A BIP model where only possible choices are (1) yes, go ahead with a cer-
some of the variables are restricted to be binary tain option or (2) no, decline this option.
variables. (Introduction), 232 (Introduction), 232
256 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
9
Counties
1. Clallum 19. Chelan
10 18 26 28 2. Jefferson 20. Douglas
27 3. Grays Harbor 21. Kittitas
1 4. Pacific 22. Grant
11 5. Wahkiakum 23. Yakima
2 19 6. Kitsap 24. Klickitat
6 20 7. Mason 25. Benton
12 29 30 8. Thurston 26. Ferry
7
9. Whatcom 27. Stevens
3 10. Skagit 28. Pend Oreille
13 21
8 22 31 32 11. Snohomish 29. Lincoln
12. King 30. Spokane
4 14 13. Pierce 31. Adams
33 36 14. Lewis 32. Whitman
5 23
15 35 15. Cowlitz 33. Franklin
25 34
17 37 16. Clark 34. Walla Walla
16 24 17. Skamania 35. Columbia
18. Okanogan 36. Garfield
37. Asotin
county. (The locations and names of the counties are shown at the site. The product costs $400 to produce at Plant 1 and
above.) Formulate and solve a BIP model in a spreadsheet to $300 to produce at Plant 2. The shipping cost from each plant
determine where the teams should be located. to each potential warehouse location is shown in the first table
below. The fixed leasing and operating cost (if open), the ship-
7.S3. Warehouse Site Selection ping costs, and the capacity (maximum monthly shipments) of
Consider a small company that produces a single product in two each potential warehouse location are shown in the second table
plants and serves customers in five different regions. below. The monthly demand in each of the customer regions is
The company has been using a make-to-order policy of pro- expected to be 200, 225, 100, 150, and 175 units, respectively.
ducing the product only in the quantities needed to fill the orders Formulate and solve a BIP model in a spreadsheet to determine
that have come in from the various regions. However, because which warehouse(s) should be used and how the product should
of the problems caused by the sporatic production schedule, be distributed from plant to warehouse(s) to customer.
management has decided to smooth out the production rate and
ship the product to one or more storage warehouses, which then
will use inventory to fill the incoming regional orders. Manage- Shipping Costs and Capacity of the Plants
ment now needs to decide where to locate the company’s new
warehouse(s). There are three locations under consideration. For Shipping Cost (per unit) Capacity
each location, there is a fixed monthly cost associated with leas- WH 1 WH 2 WH 3 (units/month)
ing and operating the warehouse there. Furthermore, each poten-
Plant 1 $25 $50 $75 500
tial warehouse location has a maximum capacity for monthly
Plant 2 $50 $75 $25 400
shipments restricted primarily by the number of trucking docks
Problems
To the left of the problems (or their parts), we have inserted an as well as the amount of investment required to undertake the
E* whenever Excel should be used (unless your instructor gives project.
you contrary instructions). An asterisk on the problem number
indicates that at least a partial answer is given in the back of the Development Project
book.
1 2 3 4 5
7.1. Read the referenced article that fully describes the man- Estimated profit
agement science study summarized in the application vignette (millions) $1 $ 1.8 $ 1.6 $0.8 $1.4
presented in Section 7.1. Briefly describe how mixed BIP was Capital required
applied in this study. Then list the various financial and nonfi- (millions) 6 12 10 4 8
nancial benefits that resulted from this study.
7.2. Reconsider the California Manufacturing Co. case The owners of the firm, Dave Peterson and Ron Johnson, have
study presented in Section 7.1. The mayor of San Diego now raised $20 million of investment capital for these projects. Dave
has contacted the company’s president, Armando Ortega, to try and Ron now want to select the combination of projects that
to persuade him to build a factory and perhaps a warehouse in will maximize their total estimated long-run profit (net present
that city. With the tax incentives being offered the company, value) without investing more than $20 million.
Armando’s staff estimates that the net present value of building a. Formulate a BIP model in algebraic form for this
a factory in San Diego would be $7 million and the amount of problem.
capital required to do this would be $4 million. The net present E* b. Formulate and solve this model on a spreadsheet.
value of building a warehouse there would be $5 million and the E* c. Perform sensitivity analysis on the amount of
capital required would be $3 million. (This option will only be investment capital made available for the devel-
considered if a factory also is being built there.) opment projects by generating a parameter analy-
Armando has asked Steve Chan to revise his previous man- sis report with RSPE to solve the model with the
agement science study to incorporate these new alternatives into following amounts of investment capital (in mil-
the overall problem. The objective still is to find the feasible lions of dollars): 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30.
combination of investments that maximizes the total net present Include both the changing cells and the objective
value, given that the amount of capital available for these invest- cell as output cells in the parameter analysis report.
ments is $10 million.
E*7.6. The board of directors of General Wheels Co. is con-
a. Formulate a BIP model in algebraic form for this sidering seven large capital investments. Each investment can
problem. be made only once. These investments differ in the estimated
E* b. Formulate and solve this model on a spreadsheet. long-run profit (net present value) that they will generate as
7.3.* A young couple, Eve and Steven, want to divide their well as in the amount of capital required, as shown by the fol-
main household chores (marketing, cooking, dishwashing, and lowing table.
laundering) between them so that each has two tasks but the total
time they spend on household duties is kept to a minimum. Their
Investment Estimated Profit Capital Required
efficiencies on these tasks differ, where the time each would
Opportunity (millions) (millions)
need to perform the task is given by the following table.
1 $17 $43
2 10 28
Time Needed per Week (Hours) 3 15 34
4 19 48
Marketing Cooking Dish Washing Laundry 5 7 17
6 13 32
Eve 4.5 7.8 3.6 2.9 7 9 23
Steven 4.9 7.2 4.3 3.1
258 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
with RSPE to solve the model with the following columns and the only paths considered always move forward
amounts of capital (in millions of dollars): 80, 90, one column at a time.
100, 110, . . . , and 200. Include both the chang- 6
ing cells and the objective cell as output cells in the A C
3 3
parameter analysis report. 5
E*7.7. The Fly-Right Airplane Company builds small jet air- (Origin) O T (Destination)
planes to sell to corporations for use by their executives. To 4
meet the needs of these executives, the company’s customers 6 2
sometimes order a custom design of the airplanes being pur- B D
3
chased. When this occurs, a substantial start-up cost is incurred
to initiate the production of these airplanes. The numbers along the links represent distances (in miles), and the
Fly-Right has recently received purchase requests from three objective is to find the shortest path from the origin to the destination.
customers with short deadlines. However, because the com- This problem also can be formulated as a BIP model involv-
pany’s production facilities already are almost completely tied ing both mutually exclusive alternatives and contingent deci-
up filling previous orders, it will not be able to accept all three sions. Formulate and solve this BIP model on a spreadsheet.
orders. Therefore, a decision now needs to be made on the num- Identify the constraints for (1) mutually exclusive alternatives
ber of airplanes the company will agree to produce (if any) for and (2) contingent decisions.
each of the three customers. 7.9. Read the referenced article that fully describes the man-
The relevant data are given in the next table. The first row agement science study summarized in the application vignette
gives the start-up cost required to initiate the production of the presented in Section 7.4. Briefly describe how BIP and related
airplanes for each customer. Once production is under way, techniques were applied in this study. Then list the various
the marginal net revenue (which is the purchase price minus financial and nonfinancial benefits that resulted from this study.
the marginal production cost) from each airplane produced is 7.10. Speedy Delivery provides two-day delivery service of
shown in the second row. The third row gives the percentage large parcels across the United States. Each morning at each col-
of the available production capacity that would be used for lection center, the parcels that have arrived overnight are loaded
each airplane produced. The last row indicates the maximum onto several trucks for delivery throughout the area. Since the
number of airplanes requested by each customer (but less will competitive battlefield in this business is speed of delivery, the
be accepted). parcels are divided among the trucks according to their geo-
graphical destinations to minimize the average time needed to
Customer make the deliveries.
On this particular morning, the dispatcher for the Blue River
1 2 3
Valley Collection Center, Sharon Lofton, is hard at work. Her
Start-up cost $3 million $2 million 0 three drivers will be arriving in less than an hour to make the day’s
Marginal net revenue $2 million $3 million $0.8 million deliveries. There are nine parcels to be delivered, all at locations
Capacity used per plane 20% 40% 20%
many miles apart. As usual, Sharon has loaded these locations
Maximum order 3 planes 2 planes 5 planes
into her computer. She is using her company’s special software
package, a decision support system called Dispatcher. The first
Fly-Right now wants to determine how many airplanes to thing Dispatcher does is use these locations to generate a con-
produce for each customer (if any) to maximize the company’s siderable number of attractive possible routes for the individual
total profit (total net revenue minus start-up costs). Formulate delivery trucks. These routes are shown in the table below (where
and solve a spreadsheet model with both integer variables and the numbers in each column indicate the order of the deliveries),
binary variables for this problem. along with the estimated time required to traverse the route.
E*7.8. Consider the following special type of shortest path Dispatcher is an interactive system that shows these routes
problem (discussed in Section 6.4) where the nodes are in to Sharon for her approval or modification. (For example, the
computer may not know that flooding has made a particular station to minimize the total cost of stations while ensuring
route infeasible.) After Sharon approves these routes as attrac- that each tract has at least one station close enough to respond
tive possibilities with reasonable time estimates, Dispatcher next to a medical emergency in no more than 15 minutes. In con-
formulates and solves a BIP model for selecting three routes that trast to the original problem, note that the total number of
minimize their total time while including each delivery location paramedic stations is no longer fixed. Furthermore, if a tract
on exactly one route. without a station has more than one station within 15 minutes,
E* a. Using the data in the table, demonstrate how Dis- it is no longer necessary to assign this tract to just one of these
patcher can formulate and solve this BIP model on a stations.
spreadsheet. a. Formulate the algebraic form of a pure BIP model
b. Describe how the problem addressed in part a is with five binary variables for this problem.
analogous to the crew scheduling problem described E* b. Display and solve this model on a spreadsheet.
in Section 7.4. 7.13. Reconsider the Southwestern Airways crew scheduling
E*7.11. An increasing number of Americans are moving to problem presented in Section 7.4. Because of a blizzard in the
a warmer climate when they retire. To take advantage of this Chicago area, all the flights into and out of Chicago (including
trend, Sunny Skies Unlimited is undertaking a major real-estate flights 4, 6, 7, and 9 in Table 7.5) have been canceled for the
development project. The project is to develop a completely time being, so a new crew scheduling plan needs to be devel-
new retirement community (to be called Pilgrim Haven) that oped to cover the seven remaining flights in Table 7.5.
will cover several square miles. One of the decisions to be made The 12 feasible sequences of flights still are the ones
is where to locate the two paramedic stations that have been shown in Table 7.5 after deleting the canceled flights. When
allocated to the community to respond to medical emergen- flights into and out of Chicago had originally been part of a
cies. For planning purposes, Pilgrim Haven has been divided sequence, a crew now would fly as passengers on a Southwest-
into five tracts, with no more than one paramedic station to ern Airways flight to the next city in the sequence to cover
be located in any given tract. Each station is to respond to all the remaining flights in the sequence. For example, flight
the medical emergencies that occur in the tract in which it is sequence 4 now would be San Francisco to Los Angeles to
located as well as in the other tracts that are assigned to this Denver to San Francisco, where a crew would fly as passen-
station. Thus, the decisions to be made consist of (1) the tracts gers on a flight from Los Angeles to Denver (not shown in
to receive a paramedic station and (2) the assignment of each of the table) to enable serving as the crew from Denver to San
the other tracts to one of the paramedic stations. The objective is Francisco. (Since the original sequence 5 included a round-
to minimize the overall average of the response times to medical trip from Denver to Chicago and back, a crew assigned to this
emergencies. sequence now would simply lay over in Denver to await the
The following table gives the average response time to a flight from Denver to San Francisco.) The cost of assigning a
medical emergency in each tract (the rows) if that tract is served crew to any sequence still would be the same as shown in the
by a station in a given tract (the columns). The last column gives bottom row of Table 7.5.
the forecasted average number of medical emergencies that will The objective still is to minimize the total cost of the crew
occur in each of the tracts per day. assignments that cover all the flights. The fact that only 7 flights
Formulate and solve a BIP model on a spreadsheet for this now need to be covered instead of 11 increases the chance
problem. Identify any constraints that correspond to mutually that fewer than three crews will need to be assigned to a flight
exclusive alternatives or contingent decisions. sequence this time. (The flights where these crews fly as passen-
gers do not need to be covered since they already are assigned to
7.12. Reconsider Problem 7.11. The management of Sunny
crews that are not based in San Francisco.)
Skies Unlimited now has decided that the decision regarding
the locations of the paramedic stations should be based mainly a. Formulate a BIP model in algebraic form for this
on costs. problem.
The cost of locating a paramedic station in a tract is E* b. Formulate and solve this problem on a spreadsheet.
$200,000 for tract 1, $250,000 for tract 2, $400,000 for tract 3, 7.14. Yakima Construction Corporation (YCC) is consid-
$300,000 for tract 4, and $500,000 for tract 5. Management’s ering a number of different development projects. The cash
objective now is to determine which tracts should receive a outflows that would be required to complete each project are
260 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
indicated in the table below, along with the expected net present a. Formulate a BIP model in algebraic form for this
value of each project (all values in millions of dollars). problem.
E* b. Formulate and solve this model on a spreadsheet.
Project
7.17. The school board for the Bellevue School District has
1 2 3 4 5 made the decision to purchase 1,350 additional Macintosh com-
puters for computer laboratories in all its schools. Based on past
Year 1 $ 8 $10 $12 $4 $14
Year 2 6 8 6 3 6 experience, the school board also has directed that these computers
Year 3 3 7 6 2 5 should be purchased from some combination of three companies—
Year 4 0 5 6 0 7 Educomp, Macwin, and McElectronics. In all three cases, the
companies charge a discounted variable cost per computer and a
NPV $12 $15 $20 $9 $23
fixed delivery and installation cost for these large sales to school
districts. The table below shows these charges as well as the
Each project must be done in full (with the corresponding cash capacity (the maximum number of computers that can be sold
flows for all four years) or not done at all. Furthermore, there from the limited inventory) for each of the companies.
are the following additional considerations. Project 1 cannot be
done unless Project 2 is also undertaken, and projects 3 and 4
Educomp Macwin McElectronics
would compete with each other, so they should not both be cho-
sen. YCC expects to have the following cash available to invest Capacity 700 700 1,000
in these projects: $40 million for year 1, $25 million for year 2, Fixed cost $45,000 $35,000 $50,000
$16 million for year 3, and $12 million for year 4. Any available Variable cost $750 $775 $700
money not spent in a given year is then available to spend the
following year. YCC’s policy is to choose their projects so as to The school board wants to determine the minimum-cost plan
maximize their total expected NPV. for meeting its computer needs.
a. Formulate a BIP model in algebraic form for this a. Formulate a BIP model in algebraic form for this
problem. problem.
E* b. Formulate and solve this model on a spreadsheet. E* b. Formulate and solve this model on a spreadsheet.
7.15. Read the referenced article that fully describes the man- E* c. Now suppose that Macwin has not submitted its
agement science study summarized in the application vignette final bid yet, so the per computer cost is not known
presented in Section 7.5. Briefly describe how mixed BIP was with certainty. Generate a parameter analysis report
applied in this study. Then list the various financial and nonfi- with RSPE to show the optimal order quantities
nancial benefits that resulted from this study. and total cost of the optimal solution when the cost
7.16. An electrical utility needs to generate 6,500 megawatts per computer for Macwin is $680, $690, $700,
of electricity today. It has five generators. If any electricity is $710, . . . , $790, or $800.
generated by a given generator, that generator must be started up E*7.18. Noble Amazon sells books online. Management is try-
and a fixed start-up cost is incurred. There is an additional cost ing to determine the best sites for the company’s warehouses.
for each megawatt generated by a generator. These costs, as well The five potential sites under consideration are listed in the first
as the maximum capacity of each generator, are shown in the column of the table at the bottom of the page. Most of the sales
following table. The objective is to determine the minimum cost come from customers in the United States. The average weekly
plan that meets the electrical needs for today. demand from each region of the country, the average shipping
Generator
A B C D E
Fixed start-up cost $3,000 $2,000 $2,500 $1,500 $1,000
Cost per megawatt /day generated $5 $4 $6 $6 $7
Maximum capacity (MW/day) 2,100 1,800 2,500 1,500 3,000
cost from each warehouse site to each region of the country, production and distribution of the WebSurfer from
the fixed cost per week of each warehouse if it is operated, and the various plants, through the warehouses, to the
the maximum capacity of each warehouse (if it is operated) are customers that will minimize total costs.
shown in the table. Formulate and solve a mixed BIP model in a
spreadsheet to determine which warehouse sites Noble Amazon Fixed Cost
should operate and how books should be distributed from each Plant ($/week)
warehouse to each region of the country to minimize total cost. Atlanta $8,000
E*7.19. Aberdeen Computer Corp. (ACC) is located in Aber- Kansas City $9,000
deen, Washington. The company has developed the WebSurfer, Aberdeen $9,000
a low-cost e-mail and Web-surfing appliance. This product is Austin $10,000
manufactured at four plants, located in Atlanta, Kansas City,
Aberdeen, and Austin. After production, the WebSurfers are
shipped to three warehouses, located in Nashville, San Jose, Fixed Cost
and Houston. ACC sells the WebSurfers through the retail Warehouse ($/week)
channel. In particular, five different retailers currently sell the Nashville $4,000
WebSurfer—Sears, Best Buy, Fry’s, Comp USA, and Office San Jose $5,000
Max. ACC makes weekly shipments to the main warehouses of Houston $5,000
these five retailers. The shipping cost from each plant to each
warehouse, along with the production cost and weekly produc- b. Now suppose that ACC is considering saving
tion capacity at each plant, are given in the table below. money by closing some of its production facilities
The shipping cost from each warehouse to each customer, the and/or warehouses. Suppose there is a fixed cost
variable cost (cost per unit moved through the warehouse), the to operate each plant and each warehouse as indi-
capacity (maximum number of units that can be moved through cated in the tables above. Add binary variables to
the warehouse per week) for each warehouse, and the weekly your model in part a to incorporate the decision of
demand for each customer are given in the table below. which plants and warehouses to keep open so as to
a. Formulate and solve a linear programming model minimize total cost (including the fixed costs for
in a spreadsheet to determine the plan for weekly any plant or warehouse that is operated).
Case 7-1
Assigning Art
It had been a dream come true for Ash Briggs, a struggling art- Ash did not want to squander his winnings on materialistic, triv-
ist living in the San Francisco Bay area. He had made a trip to ial items. Instead he wanted to use his money to support his true pas-
the corner grocery store late one Friday afternoon to buy some sion: art. Ash knew all too well the difficulties of gaining recognition
milk, and, on impulse, he had also purchased a California lottery as an artist in this post-industrial, technological society where artistic
ticket. One week later, he was a multimillionaire. appreciation is rare and financial support even rarer. He therefore
262 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
decided to use the money to fund an exhibit of up-and-coming mod- wire mesh sculpture to the delicate lines in a two-dimensional
ern artists at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. computer-generated drawing. He therefore wants at least one
Ash approached the museum directors with his idea, and the wire-mesh sculpture displayed if a computer-generated draw-
directors became excited immediately after he informed them that ing is displayed. Alternatively, he wants at least one computer-
he would fund the entire exhibit in addition to donating $1 million to generated drawing displayed if a wire-mesh sculpture is dis-
the museum. Celeste McKenzie, a museum director, was assigned played. Furthermore, Ash wants to expose viewers to all painting
to work with Ash in planning the exhibit. The exhibit was slated styles, but he wants to limit the number of paintings displayed to
to open one year from the time Ash met with the directors, and the achieve a balance in the exhibit between paintings and other art
exhibit pieces would remain on display for two months. forms. He therefore decides to include at least one photo-realistic
Ash began the project by combing the modern art commu- painting, at least one cubist painting, at least one expressionist
nity for potential artists and pieces. He presented a list (shown painting, at least one watercolor painting, and at least one oil
below) of artists, their pieces, and the price of displaying each painting. At the same time, he wants the number of paintings to
piece1 to Celeste. be no greater than twice the number of other art forms.
Ash possesses certain requirements for the exhibit. He Ash wants all his own paintings included in the exhibit since
believes the majority of Americans lack adequate knowledge of he is sponsoring the exhibit and since his paintings celebrate the
art and artistic styles, and he wants the exhibit to educate Ameri- San Francisco Bay area, the home of the exhibit.
cans. Ash wants visitors to become aware of the collage as an Ash possesses personal biases for and against some artists.
art form, but he believes collages require little talent. He there- Ash is currently having a steamy affair with Candy Tate, and he
fore decides to include only one collage. Additionally, Ash wants wants both of her paintings displayed. Ash counts both David
viewers to compare the delicate lines in a three-dimensional Lyman and Rick Rawls as his best friends, and he does not want
1
The display price includes the cost of paying the artist for loaning the piece to the museum, transporting the piece to San Francisco, con-
structing the display for the piece, insuring the piece while it is on display, and transporting the piece back to its origin.
to play favorites among these two artists. He therefore decides to Please explore the following questions independently except
display as many pieces from David Lyman as from Rick Rawls where otherwise indicated.
and to display at least one piece from each of them. Although
Ziggy Lite is very popular within art circles, Ash believes Ziggy a. Ash decides to allocate $4 million to fund the exhibit. Given
makes a mockery of art. Ash will therefore only accept one dis- the pieces available and the specific requirements from Ash
play piece from Ziggy, if any at all. and Celeste, formulate and solve a binary integer program-
Celeste also possesses her own agenda for the exhibit. As a ming problem to maximize the number of pieces displayed in
museum director, she is interested in representing a diverse pop- the exhibit without exceeding the budget. How many pieces
ulation of artists, appealing to a wide audience, and creating a are displayed? Which pieces are displayed?
politically correct exhibit. To advance feminism, she decides to b. To ensure that the exhibit draws the attention of the pub-
include at least one piece from a female artist for every two pieces lic, Celeste decides that it must include at least 20 pieces.
included from a male artist. To advance environmentalism, she Formulate and solve a binary integer programming prob-
decides to include either one or both of the pieces Aging Earth lem to minimize the cost of the exhibit while displaying at
and Wasted Resources. To advance Native American rights, she least 20 pieces and meeting the requirements set by Ash and
decides to include at least one piece by Bear Canton. To advance Celeste. How much does the exhibit cost? Which pieces are
science, she decides to include at least one of the following displayed?
pieces: Chaos Reigns, Who Has Control?, Beyond, and Pioneers. c. An influential patron of Rita Losky’s work who chairs the
Celeste also understands that space is limited at the museum. museum’s board of directors learns that Celeste requires at
The museum only has enough floor space for four sculptures and least 20 pieces in the exhibit. He offers to pay the minimum
enough wall space for 20 paintings, collages, and drawings. amount required on top of Ash’s $4 million to ensure that
Finally, Celeste decides that if Narcissism is displayed, exactly 20 pieces are displayed in the exhibit and that all of
Reflection should also be displayed since Reflection also sug- Rita’s pieces are displayed. How much does the patron have
gests narcissism. to pay? Which pieces are displayed?
Case 7-2
Stocking Sets
Daniel Holbrook, an expediter at the local warehouse for Furniture Brenda decided to investigate the inventory situation at the
City, sighed as he moved boxes and boxes of inventory to the side local warehouse. She walked the short distance to the building
to reach the shelf where the particular item he needed was located. next door and gasped when she stepped inside the warehouse.
He dropped to his hands and knees and squinted at the inven- What she saw could only be described as chaos. Spaces allo-
tory numbers lining the bottom row of the shelf. He did not find cated for some items were overflowing into the aisles of the
the number he needed. He worked his way up the shelf until he warehouse while other spaces were completely bare. She walked
found the number matching the number on the order slip. Just his over to one of the spaces overflowing with inventory to deter-
luck! The item was on the top row of the shelf! Daniel walked back mine what item was overstocked. She could not believe her
through the warehouse to find a ladder, stumbling over boxes of eyes! The warehouse had at least 30 rolls of pea-green wallpa-
inventory littering his path. When he finally climbed the ladder to per! No customer had ordered pea-green wallpaper since 1973!
reach the top shelf, his face crinkled in frustration. Not again! The Brenda marched over to Daniel demanding an explanation.
item he needed was not in stock! All he saw above the inventory Daniel said that the warehouse had been in such a chaotic state
number was an empty space covered with dust! since his arrival one year ago. He said the inventory problems
Daniel trudged back through the warehouse to make the occurred because management had a policy of stocking every
dreaded phone call. He dialed the number of Brenda Sims, the furniture item on the showroom floor in the local warehouse.
saleswoman on the kitchen showroom floor of Furniture City, Management only replenished inventory every three months, and
and informed her that the particular light fixture the customer when inventory was replenished, management ordered every item
had requested was not in stock. He then asked her if she wanted regardless of whether it had been sold. Daniel also said that he had
him to look for the rest of the items in the kitchen set. Brenda tried to make management aware of the problems with overstock-
told him that she would talk to the customer and call him back. ing unpopular items and understocking popular items, but manage-
Brenda hung up the phone and frowned. Mr. Davidson, her cus- ment would not listen to him because he was simply an expediter.
tomer, would not be happy. Ordering and receiving the correct light Brenda understood that Furniture City required a new inven-
fixture from the regional warehouse would take at least two weeks. tory policy. Not only was the megastore losing money by making
Brenda then paused to reflect upon business during the last customers unhappy with delivery delays, but it was also losing
month and realized that over 80 percent of the orders for kitchen money by wasting warehouse space. By changing the inventory
sets could not be filled because items needed to complete the policy to stock only popular items and replenish them immedi-
sets were not in stock at the local warehouse. She also realized ately when sold, Furniture City would ensure that the majority of
that Furniture City was losing customer goodwill and business customers would receive their furniture immediately and that the
because of stockouts. The furniture megastore was gaining a valuable warehouse space would be utilized effectively.
reputation for slow service and delayed deliveries, causing cus- Brenda needed to sell her inventory policy to management.
tomers to turn to small competitors that sold furniture directly Using her extensive sales experience, she decided that the most
from the showroom floor. effective sales strategy would be to use her kitchen department
264 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
as a model for the new inventory policy. She would identify all a. Formulate and solve a binary integer programming problem
kitchen sets comprising 85 percent of customer orders. Given to maximize the total number of kitchen sets (and thus the
the fixed amount of warehouse space allocated to the kitchen number of customer orders) Furniture City stocks in the local
department, she would identify the items Furniture City should warehouse. Assume that when a customer orders a kitchen
stock to satisfy the greatest number of customer orders. She set, all the particular items composing that kitchen set are
would then calculate the revenue from satisfying customer replenished at the local warehouse immediately.
orders under the new inventory policy, using the bottom line to b. How many of each feature and style should Furniture City
persuade management to accept her policy. stock in the local warehouse? How many different kitchen
Brenda analyzed her records over the past three years and sets are in stock?
determined that 20 kitchen sets were responsible for 85 percent c. Furniture City decides to discontinue carrying nursery sets,
of the customer orders. These 20 kitchen sets were composed and the warehouse space previously allocated to the nurs-
of up to eight features in a variety of styles. Brenda listed each ery department is divided between the existing departments
feature and its popular styles in the tables below. at Furniture City. The kitchen department receives enough
Brenda then created a table (given on the next page) showing additional space to allow it to stock both styles of dishwash-
the 20 kitchen sets and the particular features composing each ers and three of the four styles of ranges. How does the opti-
set. To simplify the table, she used the codes shown in paren- mal inventory policy for the kitchen department change with
theses below to represent the particular feature and style. For this additional warehouse space?
example, kitchen set 1 consists of floor tile T2, wallpaper W2,
d. Brenda convinces management that the kitchen department
light fixture L4, cabinet C2, countertop O2, dishwasher D2, sink
should serve as a testing ground for future inventory policies.
S2, and range R2. Notice that sets 14 through 20 do not contain
To provide adequate space for testing, management decides
dishwashers.
Brenda knew she had only a limited amount of warehouse to allocate all the space freed by the nursery department
space allocated to the kitchen department. The warehouse could to the kitchen department. The extra space means that the
hold 50 square feet of tile and 12 rolls of wallpaper in the inven- kitchen department can store not only the dishwashers and
tory bins. The inventory shelves could hold two light fixtures, ranges from part c, but also all sinks, all countertops, three
two cabinets, three countertops, and two sinks. Dishwashers of the four light fixtures, and three of the four cabinets. How
and ranges are similar in size, so Furniture City stored them in much does the additional space help?
similar locations. The warehouse floor could hold a total of four e. How would the inventory policy be affected if the items
dishwashers and ranges. composing a kitchen set could not be replenished immedi-
Every kitchen set always includes exactly 20 square feet of ately? Under what conditions is the assumption of immediate
tile and exactly five rolls of wallpaper. Therefore, 20 square feet replenishment nevertheless justified?
of a particular style of tile and five rolls of a particular style of
wallpaper are required for the styles to be in stock.
09/11/12 1:31 PM
Confirming Pages
266 Chapter Seven Using Binary Integer Programming to Deal with Yes-or-No Decisions
Case 7-3
Assigning Students to Schools (Revisited)
Reconsider Case 3-5. The Springfield School Board now has b. Referring to part c of Case 3-5, determine how much the total
made the decision to prohibit the splitting of residential areas busing cost increases because of the decision to prohibit the
among multiple schools. Thus, each of the six areas must be splitting of residential areas among multiple schools.
assigned to a single school.
c, d, e, f. Repeat parts d, e, f, g of Case 3-5 under the new school
a. Formulate and solve a BIP model for this problem under the board decision to prohibit splitting of residential areas among
current policy of providing busing for all middle school stu- multiple schools.
dents who must travel more than approximately a mile.
Case 7-4
Broadcasting the Olympic Games (Revisited)
Reconsider part b of Case 6-4. Use the spreadsheet model devel- GB/s from the Olympics site (A) to the home studios (G) at the
oped there to incorporate the following consideration. lowest possible cost?
An additional concern not considered in Case 6-4 is that
the routers at nodes C and F are each already maxed out. If
any additional capacity is built into or out of node C or node Additional Cases
F, then the routers at these stations must be upgraded. This
would cost a total of $2 million at node C or a total of $3 mil- An additional case for this chapter also is available at the Uni-
lion at node F. Which network segments should be increased in versity of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business website,
capacity and by how much so as to increase the total capacity cases.ivey.uwo.ca/cases, in the segment of the CaseMate area
of the network enough to transmit the peak requirement of 35 designated for this book.