Lecture 5

Data Management:

 Solving Construction-Related Problems using

Linear Programming
 Linear Programming
1. It is a model consisting of linear relationships representing a firm’s decision(s) given an
objective and resource constraints.

2. The objective function is a linear relationship reflecting the objective of an operation

(e.g. maximize profit, minimize cost)

3. A model is a functional relationship including variables, parameters and equations.

Example: a firm sells a product at a price of $30, it takes $ 10 to produce the product.
What is the mathematical model that compute the total profit?
 Linear Programming
1. A constraint is a linear relationship representing a restriction on a decision
making.

2. Variable is a symbol used to represent an item that can take on any value.

3. Decision variables are mathematical symbols representing levels of activity

4. Parameters are known, constant values that are often coefficients of the
variables in equations.

5. Data are pieces of information from problem environment

Example

A company produces 2 types of products P1 and P2. production of

these products is supported by 2 workstations W1 and W2 with
each station visited by both product types. If W1 is dedicated
completely to the production of P1, it can process 40 units/day.
While if it is dedicated to the production of P2, it can process 60
units/day. Similarly, W2 can produce daily 50 units of P1 and 50
units of P2 assuming that it is dedicated completely to the
production of corresponding product. If the company’s profit by
selling 1 unit of P1 is $200 and that of selling I unit of P2 is $ 400.
Assuming that the company can dispose its entire production,
how many units of each product should be produced on a daily
basis to maximize the company profit?
The general LP formulation
•Objective function

•Subject to

•Sign restrictions

Different forms of LP
•The min version –standard form

•Canonical form

•Max version
 Example 5-2

A firm manufactures 2 types of products A and B and sells them at a

profit of $2 on A and $3 on B. Each product is processed on 2
machines M1 and M2. Product A needs I minute of processing time
on M1and 2 min on M2. Product B requires 1 min on M1 and M2.
The machine M1 is available for not more than 6 hours 40 minutes
while M2 is available for 10 hours during any working day. Formulate
the problem as a LP model
Example 5-3
A firm manufactures 3 products A,
B and C and the profits are $3,$2 Products
and $4 respectively. The firm has 2
machines and the required
processing time in minutes for
each machine on each product is
Machine A B C
given below.
Machines X and Y have 2000 and
2500 machine minutes X 4 3 5
respectively. The firm must
manufacture 100 A’s, 200 B’s and
50 C’s but not more than 150 A’s.
set up an LP model to maximize Y 2 2 4
profit
 Example 5-4

A paving contractor is planning his work schedule for the following

week. He has a choice of either of two types of concrete , plain
concrete or concrete with an additive. Cost records indicate that
contractor can expect a profit of $4 per cubic meter for plain
concrete and $ 3 per cubic meter for additive concrete. Naturally,
the objective of the contractor is to maximize his profit. However,
he does not want to hire additional workers. Labor requirements
in man-hours per cubic meter for each type of concrete are given
below. Assuming sufficient demand exists, how many cubic meter
of each type of concrete should the contractor place the
following week? The contractor works a 40-h week.
Example 5-5

• Aggregates are to be shipped from 3 quarries (A, B, C) to 5 projects

• The maximum production per day for each quarry:
– Quarry A: 310 truckloads
– Quarry B: 260 truckloads
– Quarry C: 280 truckloads
• The daily demand for each project:
– Project 1: 180 truckloads
– Project 2: 80 truckloads
– Project 3: 200 truckloads
– Project 4: 160 truckloads
– Project 5: 220 truckloads
Data & Project Management Tools

• The shipping costs from any quarry to any project are as follows:

Project Project Project Project Project

Quarry
5 4 3 2 1
4 5 6 8 10 A
6 3 4 5 6 B
9 5 5 4 3 C
• Determine the amounts of aggregate to ship from each quarry to each project. Consider the
following constraints:
– Minimize shipping cost
– Meet the demand of each project
– Do not exceed the supply limit of each quarry