UNIT 2 LESSON 1

Introduction

Linear programming helps you to allocate scarce resources in an effective and efficient way. It is
particularly useful in Business and Economics where it is paramount to maximize revenue/profit
minimize costs/waste.

Have you ever taken a clothing material to a tailor to make a dress for you? Do you think that the left-
over piece of material would be the same size if you took your clothing material to another tailor?

In this unit, I will guide you through the steps that you need to take to be able to model linear
programs correctly. At the end of this unit, you should be able to
• identify objective statement in a word problem
• model objective statement into an equation
• identify the constraints in a word problem
• model constraints into inequalities

What is a linear program?

A linear program is a model consisting of linear equations and linear inequalities. It consists of mainly
two parts namely:
1 The objective function which is an equation.
2. The constraints which could be inequalities and/or equations.

What should I do to understand a word problem?

Word problems usually contains information that you require to solve a particular problem. Hence it
is very important to read the statement of the word problem over and again until the statement is
well understood. To understand the requirements and information in a word problem, I encourage
you to:

1. Read the whole statement for the first time to get a general idea of what the problem is all
about.

2. Read the whole statement for the second time to identify the relevant information and the
requirements. Repeat this step until you are confident that you correctly identified the relevant
information and the requirements.
In-text check

I want you to read the following word problem and identify the (1) requirement(s) and (2) the relevant
information:

A company manufactures and sells two models of lamps, L1 and L2. To manufacture each lamp, the
time for manual work involved in model L1 is 20 minutes and for L2, 30 minutes. The time for
mechanical (machine) work involved for L1 is 20 minutes and for L2, 10 minutes. The time for manual
work available per month is 100 hours and the machine time is limited to only 80 hours per month.
Knowing that the profit per unit is $15 and $10 for L1 and L2, respectively, determine the quantities of
each lamp that should be manufactured to obtain the maximum total profit.

https://www.superprof.co.uk/resources/academic/maths/linear-algebra/linear-programming/linear-programming-word-problems.html

What is the requirement?

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List the relevant information.

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Formulating a Linear Programming Model

In formulating a linear model, the introduction of variables is inevitable. When introducing variables,
it is advisable to choose letters in such a way that the variables are akin to what they represent. When
you have identified what the requirement is, then choose your variables to represent each requirement.
For the statement above, the requirement (henceforth referred to as objective) is to determine the
quantities of each lamp that should be manufactured to obtain the maximum total profit. So, think of
what contribute to total profit. In this case, the total profit is determined by the number of L1 and L2
models with their respective unit profits. Thus, we can choose and declare the variables as follow:

Let x be the number of L1 models and let y be the number of L2 models. The objective can now be

written as:

Maximize 15 x + 10 y
Next, we are told that time is a constraint because time is used in the production of the L1 and L2
models and the time available for each model is given.

1. There are x of model L1 and each unit of L1 takes 20 manual minutes and 20 machine
minutes. Therefore the total manual time for all L1 is 20x and the total machine time is 20x
.

2. There are y of model L2 and each unit of L2 takes 30 manual minutes and 10 machine

minutes. Therefore the total manual time for all L2 is 30 y and the total machine time is 10 y

Hence the constraint on manual time is 20 x + 30 y  100

Similarly, the constraint on machine time is 20 x + 10 y  80

We also know that the number of L1 models and the number of L2 models cannot be negative. Hence,
we place the conditions x  0 and y  0 on the variables.

Putting all these together, we have the linear model:

Maximize 15 x + 10 y
Subject to 20 x + 30 y  100
20 x + 10 y  80
x0 , y0

Some Sources of Errors in Modelling

From my experience with the full time and part time students, I will like to mention some common
errors that students make when they model linear programming problems. I want to mention them
here so that you can learn to avoid making unnecessary errors when you model word problems.

1. Reading the word problem only once is a source of error: You need to read the word
problems over and again until you have understood what the objective is and you are able
to identify the constraints.

2. Incorrect declaration of variables: You need to say exactly what your variables represent.
As an example, let us look at the statement “A loaf of bread costs N$6.50”. If you chose
 the variable x, should you say let x be a loaf of bread or let x be the cost of a loaf of
bread?

3. Using incorrect inequality sign is another source of error. You have to watch out for
phrases like more than; less than; not more than; not less than; at least; at most;
maximum; minimum; available; order on hand and so on.