Operations Research I

Operations Research

What is it??
Virtually any integrated system of
• People
• Energy
• Machines
• Material
• Information
• Capital
 How do you learn operations research??

You study and learn approaches, methods and tools that have proven
useful in understanding and improving the operations of integrated
systems of PEMMIC

The approaches are basically engineering approaches to problem

solving using scientific methods and developing a data driven
understanding of the operations of the systems and proposed solutions to
system operating problems
Definition
•Operations Research (OR)
It is a scientific approach to determine
the optimum (best) solution to a decision
problem under the restriction of limited
resources, using the mathematical
techniques to model, analyze, and solve the
problem
 Operation Research
 As its name implies, operations research involves
“research on operations.” Thus, operations
research is applied to problems that concern how
to conduct and coordinate the operations (i.e.,
the activities) within an organization .
 The nature of the organization is essentially
immaterial, in fact, OR has been applied
extensively in such diverse areas as
manufacturing, transportation, construction,
telecommunications, financial planning, health
care, the military, and public services, to name
just a few .
 Operation Research
•The process begins by carefully observing and
formulating the problem, including gathering all
relevant data. Then construct a scientific model
to represent the real problem ,while explaining its
objectives with the system constraints.

• It attempts to resolve the conflicts of interest

among the components of the organization in a
way that is best for the organization as a whole.
 HISTORY OF OPERATIONS
RESEARCH
Operations Research came into existence during
World War II, when the British and American
military management called upon a group of
scientists with diverse educational background
namely, Physics, Biology, Statistics, Mathematics,
Psychology, etc., to develop and apply a scientific
approach to deal with strategic and tactical problems
of various military operations.
 HISTORY OF OPERATIONS
RESEARCH

The objective was to allocate scarce

resources in an effective manner to various
military operations and to the activities
within each operation. The name Operations
Research (OR) came directly from the
context in which it was used and developed,
viz., research on military operations
 HISTORY OF OPERATIONS
RESEARCH
During the 50s, Operations Research achieved
recognition as a subject for study in the universities.
Since then the subject has gained increasing
importance for the students of Management, Public
Administration, Behavioral Sciences, Engineering,
Mathematics, Economics and Commerce, etc. Today,
Operations Research is also widely used in regional
planning, transportation, public health, communication
etc., besides military and industrial operations.
 Formulation

Problem Situation

Problem Model
Definition

Translation

Implementation

Analysis/Solution
Problem Definition
• Defines the Criteria and Objective
• Identifies what system components can be tweaked
• Levers to pull
• Decisions to make
• Wheels to turn
• Identifies what constrains us from making any tweak that
we wish
 Examples
• Global Logistics
• Airline Seat Available
• PJM Electric Power Market
Ex : Car-Distribution Problem

The MG Auto Company has plants in LA, Detroit, and New Orleans. Its major
distribution centers are located in Denver and Miami. The capacities of the
three plants during the next quarter are: 1000, 1500, and 1200 cars. The
quarterly demands at the two distribution centers are 2300 and 1400 cars.
The cost of shipping in $’s per car is given by:
Denver Miami
Los Angeles 80 215
Detroit 100 108
New Orleans 102 68

Find the best strategy to send cars from the plants to the distribution centers.
 OPERATION RESEARCH
Subject code : EOE-073
Unit -I :
Introduction:
Definition and scope of OR,OR model, Solving the OR
model,art of modelling,phases of OR study.
Linear Programming:
Two variable linear programming model and graphical
method of solution ,Simplex method, Dual Simplex
method, special cases of LP, Duality,Sensitivity
analysis.
 Unit – II :
Transportation Problem :
Types of transportation problem, Mathematical models,
Transportation Algorithm,
Assignment :
Allocation and Assignment problems and models, processing of
job through machines.
UNIT- III :
Network Techniques:
Shortest Path Model, minimum spanning Tree Problem, Max-
Flow problem and Min-cost problem
Project Management:
Phases of project management, guidelines for network
construction, CPM and PERT.
 Mathematical Programming Models

Maximize or Minimize z  f (x)

n
subject to : x  F   Decision
Criterion Vector

Objective Function
Set of Feasible
Decisions Usually
Defined by Membership
Rules
 Linear Programming Models

Maximize or Minimize z  f (x)

n
subject to : x  F   Decision
Criterion Vector

Objective Function
Membership Rules are Is a
Defined by a System of Linear Function
Linear Equations and/or
Inequalities
 Linear Programming Models

• All decisions are continuous

• The terms within each function (i. e. objective function and
constraint functions) combine addictively
• All terms in the objective function and constraint functions exhibit
proportionality
 Linear Programming Example

Product mix problem assumes that we can sell anything that we can
make at the given market price. Our problem is to determine how
much of each product should be made during a time period to
maximize profit using the resources that we have available for the
time period.
 Linear Programming Example

Tons required to
make one ton of:
Hi-ph Lo-ph Max amount of
item available
Item per day
RM1 2 1 1500
RM2 1 1 1200
RM3 1 0 500
Net profit/ton $15 $10
Multiple Representations

• Verbal representation
• Tabular representation
• Node – arc representation
Hi-ph Market
RM1

RM2 Process

Lo-ph Market
RM3

• Other schematic or matrix representations

 Linear Programming Example

Tons required to
make one ton of:
Hi-ph Lo-ph Max amount of
item available
Item per day
RM1 2 1 1500
RM2 1 1 1200
RM3 1 0 500
Net profit/ton $15 $10
 Linear Programming Example

Let x1  Number of tons of Hi - ph to make daily

x2  Number of tons of Lo - ph to make daily
Maximize z  15 x1  10 x2 (Profit)
subject to : 2 x1  1x2  1500 (RM1 Available)
1x1  1x2  1200 (RM2 Available)
1x1   500 (RM3 Available)
x1 0 
 (Non - negativity)
x2  0 
Linear Programming Standard Form

• Must be stated as a minimization problem

• All variables must be restricted to be greater than or equal to
zero
• All structural constraints must be equations.
 LP Standard Form Example

Let xi  # of tons of product i to make daily

s j  # of tons of RM j not needed each day
Minimize z  15 x1  10 x2
subject to : 2 x1  1x2  s1  1500
1x1  1x2  s2  1200
1x1   s 3  500
xi  0  i
sj  0 j