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Operation Research
CSC 319
Lecture 1: Introduction to Operation Research

Oladipupo Olufunke (Ph.D)

funke.oladipupo@covenantuniversity.edu.ng
+2348033319370
 Lecture Outline

 What is Operations Research?

 Typical Objective Functions
 Operation Research Tools
 Steps in Solving OR problems
 Linear Programming models
 Components of linear programming model are:
 Assumption of LP models
 Formulation of Linear Programming (LP) model
 Some Terminologies for Solutions of modals

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 Objectives
 At the end of this lecture, there should be a good understanding of
– What is Operations Research ?
– Steps in Solving OR problems
– the Components of linear programming model
– Linear Programming models and how to Formulation of Linear
Programming (LP) model

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 What is Operations Research?
 Operations Research (OR) is an interdisciplinary branch of applied mathematics
and formal science that uses methods like mathematical modeling, statistics, and
algorithms to arrive at optimal or near optimal solutions to complex problems.

– art of optimization, i.e., .(practical point of view)

− an art of defining the objective functions and
− minimizing or maximizing some objective functions

– It helps management achieve its goals using the scientific process. ( organizational point
of view)
 Typical Objective Functions

 profit,
 assembly line performance,
 crop yield,
 bandwidth,
 loss,
 waiting time in queue,
 risk
 Operation Research Tools
Some of the primary tools used in OR are:
 statistics,
 optimization,
 probability theory,
 queuing theory,
 game theory,
 graph theory,
 decision analysis,
 simulation.
Because of the computational nature of these fields, OR also has ties to computer science,
and operations researchers regularly use custom-written software.
 Steps in Solving OR problems
Constructing a
Deriving
Formulating Model to Represent
Solution from
the Problem the System under
the Model:
Study:

Testing the
Establishing
Implementation Model and the
Controls over
of the Solution: Solution
the Solution:
Derived from it:
 Linear Programming models

Linear Programming models are representation of

constraint optimization problem,
 i.e formulation of a mathematical equation.
 The problem must be the type that can be expressed mathematically in
terms of equality or inequality.
Components of linear programming model are:

The
The decision The The
Objective
variables constraints parameters
function
 Example 1 (Trivial Constraints)
Fredco company manufactures two products: #1 and #2. To manufacture one
unit of product #1 costs N40 and to manufacture one unit of product #2 costs
N60. The profit from product #1 is N30, and the profit from product #2 is
N20.The company wants to maximize its profit. How many products #1 and
#2 should it manufacture?

 There is no bound on the amount of units the company can manufacture.

 So it should manufacture infinite number of either product #1 or #2, or both.
 If there is a constraint on the number of units manufactured then the
company should manufacture only product #1, and not product #2.
 Example 2 (with Constraints)
The Fredco company can invest N40, 000 in production and use 85 hours of
labour. To manufacture one unit of product #1 requires 15 minutes of labour, and
to manufacture one unit of product #2 requires 9 minutes of labour. The company
wants to maximize its profit. How many units of product #1 and product #2
should it manufacture? What is the maximized profit?
 Example 2 Analysis
 the company does not have enough labour to put all the N40,000 in product #1.
 Since the profit to be maximized depend on the number of product #1 and #2, our
decision variables are:
x1 = number of product #1 produced;
x2 = number of product #2 produced:
 So the situation is: we want to maximize (max)
profit: 30x1 + 20x2
subject to (s:t:) the constraints
• The unknowns x1 and x2 are called decision variables.
: x1; x2  0 .— since we are selling products #1 and #2, not buying them,
therefore the variables must be +ve.
• The function 30x1+20x2 to be maximized is called the objective function.
• What we have now is a Linear Program (LP), or a Linear Optimization
problem,
 Assumption of LP models
 Linearity: decision variable are of the first order.
 Divisibility: decision variables could be fraction and not
necessarily an integer
 Deterministic parameter: The parameter values are known and
constant
 Non-negativity: All decision variables must be non negative
values.
 Assumption of LP models
 Proportionality: The output obtained from a resource is proportional to the
input invested.
 Additive: The total measure of the objective function and the total usage are
additive in nature
 Independence of variables: The various components of the model work
independently
 Existence of optimal solution: It is assumed that at the end the solution will
be optimal
Formulation of Linear Programming (LP) model
The general form of LP models with n decision variables and n constants are
as follows for maximization
Maximise

Subject to
The general form of LP models with n decision variables and n constants are
as follows for minimization
Minimise

Subject to
 Some Terminologies for Solutions of modals

 A feasible solution is a solution for which all the constraints are satisfied.
 An infeasible solution is a solution for which at least one constraint is
violated.
 The feasible region is the collection of all feasible solutions.
 The feasible region in the example is the entire shaded area in Fig. 1.
Figure 1: Feasible region
How to formulate LP models.
 Example 1
An electrical company that assembles transistor radios is about to start
assembling two brands of the products and has set up modern production
assembly. The assembly time requirements, the inspection time, the storage space
and the unit profits for these products as given by the decision and manufacturing
department and the available of company resources are shown below
Brand Brand 2 Available
1 amount
Assembly time per Unit 3hrs 8 hrs 80 hrs
Inspection time per hour 2hrs 1hr 30hr
Storage space per unit 3 cubic 3 cubic feet 40 cubic
feet feet
Unit profit N250 N 200
 Solution: LP formulation

Maximise
Subject to
 Example 2
The Table below shows the data obtained from a manufacturing company.
Formulate a linear programming model for the problem.

Point Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Available Time

Production Time 3 5 4 300
Cost of Material 7 5 4 100
Quantity 1 - - 20
Unit profit N5 N6 N7
 Solution: LP formulation

Maximise
 
Subject to:
 Exercise 1

Question: Formulate as a linear programming problem, given the

data table above,
 Exercise 2
An industry manufactures for sale two products- Plates and Sandals, from the
materials- Bem, Tem, and Pem, which are the short supply. The supply of each raw
material is limited to 240, 120 and 200 respectively. The contribution per product is
N100 per plate and N160 per sandal. The usage of these raw materials per product is as
follows Material/Unit Plate Sandal
Bem 6 2
Tem 2 2
Pem 2 4

Question: Formulate the problem in Linear Programming problem

 Lecture Reference

1. Introduction to Operations ResearchHillier L. 8th Edition

2. Operations Research in Decision analysis and Production
Management Adedayo et al (2006) 1st Edition

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