QAM I : Linear Programming

Formulation Problems
1. Hawii Sugar Company
Hawii Sugar Company produces brown sugar, processed (white) sugar, powdered sugar, and
molasses from sugar cane syrup. The company purchases 4000 tons of syrup weekly and is
contracted to deliver at least 25 tons weekly of each type of sugar. The production process starts
by manufacturing brown sugar and molasses from the syrup. A ton of syrup produces 0.3 ton of
brown sugar and 0.1 ton of molasses. White sugar is produced by processing brown sugar. It
takes 1 ton of brown sugar to produce 0.8 tons of white sugar. Powdered sugar is produced from
white sugar through a special grinding process that has a 95% conversion efficiency. The profits
per ton from brown sugar, white sugar, powdered sugar and molasses are $150, $200, $230, and
$35, respectively. Formulate the problem as a linear program, and determine the weekly
production schedule.
2. Investment Planning
An investor has money-making activities A and B available at the beginning to each of the next
five years. Each dollar invested in A at the beginning of a year returns $1.4 two years later. Each
dollar invested in B at the beginning of a year returns 1.7 three years later.
In addition, investment opportunities C and D will each be available only once in future. Each
dollar invested in C at the beginning of year 2 returns $1.90 at the end of year 5. Each dollar
invested in D at the beginning of year of year 5 returns $1.3 at the end of year 5.
The investor begins with $60,000 and wishes to know which investment plan maximizes the
amount of money at the end of five years. Formulate the problem as a linear program.

3. Warehouse Leasing
A company needs to lease warehouse storage space over next five months. The company will
lease any required amount of space for a desire number of months according to the tariff given
below.
Leasing Period (months)
Cost/1000 sq.ft. ($)

1
650

2
1000

3
1350

4
1600

5
1900

4
10

5
50

The amount of space required each month is different and is given below.
Month
Space Reqmt. (1000 sq. ft.)

1
30

2
20

3
40

Since these space requirements are quite different, it is not clear what is the most economical
way to fulfill them. Is it more economical to lease only the amount needed each month on a
month-to-month basis? Or, since the additional cost for leasing space for additional months is
much less than for the first month, is it better to lease the maximum amount needed for the entire
five months? Another option is the intermediate approach of changing the total space leased (by
adding a new lease and/or having an old lease expire) one or more times during the 5-month
period.
The objective is to minimize the total leasing cost for meeting the space requirements. Formulate
a linear programming model for this problem.
1

4. Airline Fuel Purchase Planing

Transeast Airlines flies planes o the following route: Los Angeles Houston New York
Miami Los Angeles. The lengths (in miles) of the four legs of this trip are 1500, 1700, 1300
and 2700, respectively. At each stop the plane may purchase up to 10,000 gallons of fuel. The
price of fuel at each city is as follows: Los Angeles: $1.88, Houston: $1.15, New York : $1.05,
Miami: $1.95. The planes fuel tank can hold at most 12,000 gallons. To allow for the possibility
of circling before landing, the ending fuel level for each leg of flight must be at least 600
gallons. On the average, the plane consumes one gallon of fuel per mile. Formulate an LP to
minimize the fuel cost incurred in completing the schedule.
5. Paper Recycling
A paper-recycling plant processes box board, tissue paper, newsprint and book paper into pulp
that can be used to produce three grades of recycled paper (grades 1, 2 and 3). The prices per ton
and the pulp contents of the four inputs are shown in the Table below. Two methods, de-inking
and asphalt dispersion, can be used to process the four inputs into pulp. It cost $20 to de-ink a
ton of any input. The process of de-inking removes 10% of the inputs pulp, leaving 90% of the
original pulp. It costs $15 to apply asphalt dispersion to a ton of material. The asphalt dispersion
process removes 20% of the inputs pulp. At most, 3,000 tons on input can be run through the
asphalt dispersion process or the de-inking process. Grade 1 paper can only be produced with
newsprint or book paper pulp; grade 2 paper, only with book paper, tissue paper, or box board
pulp; and grade 3 paper, only with newsprint, tissue paper or box board pulp. To meet its current
demands, the company needs 400, 500 and 700 tons of pulp, respectively, for grades 1, 2 and 3
paper. Formulate an LP to minimize the cost of meeting this demand.

Input
Box Board
Tissue Paper
Newsprint
Book Paper

Cost($/ton)
5
6
8
10

Pulp Content (%)

15
20
30
40