Advantages and Disadvantages of Linear Programming

The model formulation is crucial in decision-making because it captures the core of the business choice problem. The process of transforming verbal descriptions and numerical data into mathematical formulations that accurately reflect the relationships between decision-making elements, objectives, and resource-use constraints is known as formulation. Linear programming (L.P.) is a specific kind of technique used for economically allocating "scarce" or "limited" resources, like labour, material, machine, time, warehouse space, capital, energy, etc., to several competing activities, like goods, services, jobs, new equipment, projects, etc. based on a given optimality criterion. Resources that are limited in availability throughout the planning stage are referred to as scarce resources.

The decision-maker must know all these assumptions and attributes before using linear programming to solve a real-world choice issue. "linear" refers to a model's variables' linear relationships. As a result, every change in one variable will always result in a proportionate change in the other. For instance, double the investment in a certain project will be twice the return rate. Programming is the mathematical modelling and solution of problems involving the economic allocation of scarce resources by selecting a particular course of action or strategy from a range of possible options to reach the desired goal.

Structure Of Linear Programming

General Structure of L.P. Model

Three elements make up the L.P. model's overall structure.

In decision-making processes and factors determining the objective function's superior value, we must examine various possibilities (courses of action). Of course, we wouldn't require L.P. if there were no options. The characteristics of the objective function and the accessibility of resources serve as the basis for evaluating various options. For this, we engage in several tasks, often indicated by x1, x2,... x.n. The amount to which each of these tasks is accomplished is reflected in the value of those activities. For instance, while manufacturing a product mix, the management may utilize L.P. to determine how many units of each product to produce with the help of its limited resources, such as labour, equipment, funds, and materials.

Because the decision maker has power over them, these actions are sometimes referred to as decision variables. These choice factors, which are frequently connected in terms of finite resources, call for concurrent solutions. Every choice variable is non-negative, controllable, and continuous. Specifically, x1>0, x2>0,....xn>0

The main purpose is: Each L.P. problem's objective function represents the objective mathematically in terms of a measurable quantity, such as profit, cost, revenue, distance, etc. It is shown as follows in its simplest form:

Optimize (Maximize or Minimize) (Maximize or Minimize) Z equals c1x1 plus c2..X2... cn …xn

Where Z is the performance measure variable and x1, x2,..., xn are functions of it. Quantities c1, c2...cn are parameters that show how much a unit of each variable x1, x2..., xn contributes to the performance measure Z. The graphical approach or simplex method determines the best value of the given objective function.

The limitations: The degree to which a purpose may be fulfilled is always subject to specific restrictions (or constraints) on the utilization of resources, such as labour, machinery, raw materials, space, money, etc. Such limitations must be represented as linear equalities or inequalities in the decision variables, and an L.P. model's solution must adhere to these restrictions.

When the objective function and the restrictions can be written as linear mathematical functions, the linear programming approach is a way to select the best option from a list of viable options.

Linear Programming Application Areas

In commerce, industry, and several other industries, linear programming is the most often employed decision-making method. Several of the major application domains for linear programming will be covered in this section.

1. Farming applications

These programmes come under the management and agriculture economics areas. At the same time, the latter is focused on the issues facing a specific farm, and the former deals with the agricultural economy of a country or area.

Inter-regional rivalry and the best distribution of crop output are topics covered in the study of agricultural economics. Under restrictions on local land resources and overall demand, a linear programming model can be used to specify efficient production patterns.

In agricultural planning, linear programming may allocate scarce resources, such as land, labour, water, and working capital, to maximize net revenue.

2. Applications in the Military

Choosing an air weapon system against an adversary to keep them pinned down while reducing the amount of aviation fuel needed is an issue in military applications. The community defence against disaster problem, whose solution determines the number of defence units that should be used in a specific attack to provide the required level of protection at the least expensive cost, are variations of the transportation problem that maximize the total tonnage of bombs dropped on a set of targets.

3. Production Control

1. Product mix: A business may manufacture various goods, but each uses a finite amount of production resources. In these situations, it is crucial to decide how many of each product to make while considering its marginal contribution and the amount of resources it uses. Under all restrictions, the goal is to maximize the overall contribution.
2. Production planning: This entails determining a minimal-cost manufacturing plan for an item with varying demand during the planning period while taking beginning inventory levels, production capacity, production restrictions, labour, and all pertinent cost elements into account. The goal is to reduce overall operating expenses.
3. Assembly-line balancing: This issue will likely occur while combining many parts to create a single object. The assembly procedure needs to follow a specific order (s). The goal is to reduce the overall amount of time that has passed.
4. Blending issues: These issues develop when a product may be created using several readily available raw components, each of which has a unique composition and cost. The goal is to determine the cheapest cost blend, subject to raw material availability and minimum and maximum restrictions on specific product elements.

4. Financial Administration

1. Portfolio selection: This involves deciding which investing activity to engage in out of various options. The goal is to find the allocation that, within specified constraints, minimizes risk while maximizing the total projected return.
2. Profit planning: This entails increasing the profit margin from investments in plant, facilities, and equipment, as well as cash on hand and inventories.

5. Marketing Administration

1. Media selection: Using a linear programming technique, the advertising media mix can be determined to maximize effective exposure, provided that the budget is constrained, that exposure rates to various market segments are specified, and that the minimum and maximum number of advertisements in mixed media are specified. The issue with travelling salespeople: The challenge is to determine the quickest path from a specific location, visit each listed place, and then make their way back to the starting point. However, no city may be visited twice throughout the tour. The modified assignment approach can be used to tackle this kind of issue.
2. Physical distribution: Using linear programming, production facilities and distribution hubs are situated most economically and effectively possible for physical distribution.

6. Personnel Administration

1. Staffing issue: To minimize the overall cost of overtime or total workforce, optimal personnel is assigned to a given work using linear programming.
2. Calculating equitable pay: Sales incentives and fair compensation have been calculated using the linear programming approach.
3. Job assessment and selection: Organizations have used the linear programming approach to choose the best candidate for a given work and evaluate the job.

Other areas where linear programming is used include administration, education, fleet management, contracting out work, running hospitals, and capital budgeting.

Advantages of Linear Programming

The advantages of linear programming include the following:

1. Linear programming assists in maximizing the utilization of useful resources. It also shows how choosing and arranging these resources may help a decision-maker use his productive factors efficiently.
2. Decision-making is improved by using linear programming techniques. Utilizing this technique leads to a more objective and less subjective decision-making process.
3. Linear programming approaches provide potential and workable solutions since it's probable that there are external limitations at play that need to be taken into account. The fact that we can create a lot of units does not guarantee that they will sell. For the ease of the decision-maker, it is therefore essential to modify the mathematical answer.
4. The most important benefit of this method is that it highlights manufacturing process bottlenecks. For instance, when a bottleneck happens, some machines can't keep up with demand while others are idle.
5. Re-evaluating a fundamental strategy for changing situations is made easier with linear programming. The strategy can be adjusted to get the greatest results if conditions change while it is partially implemented.

Disadvantages of Linear Programming

1. There should be a target that is easily recognizable and quantifiably quantifiable. For instance, it may involve cost minimization, profit maximization, and sales maximization-all of which are impractical in the actual world.
2. The activities to be included should be definable and quantifiably quantifiable. For example, all of the activities in a production planning problem cannot be quantifiably assessed, such as a worker's performance when ill, which cannot be quantified.
3. The system's resources needed to achieve the objective should be quantifiably observable and identifiable. There must be a finite number of them.
4. The relationships representing the objective and the resource limitation considerations, described by the objective function and the constraint equations or inequalities, respectively, must be linear, which is impossible.
5. The technique would involve allocating these resources in a way that would trade off the returns on the investment of the resources for the attainment of the objective. The decision-makers should have access to a range of realistic alternatives based on the limitations of the available resources.
6. The problem can be represented in algebraic form, known as the Linear Programming Problem (LPP), and then solved for the best outcome when the aforementioned requirements are met in a specific circumstance.
7. There is no assurance that we will obtain integer-valued answers while solving an L.P. model.
8. A non-integer-valued answer, for instance, will have no importance when determining how many people and equipment would be needed to complete a specific task. It is impossible to arrive at the best answer by rounding off to the closest integer. In these situations, integer programming guarantees that the decision variables have integer values.
9. The linear programming paradigm does not consider the effects of time and uncertainty. As a result, the L.P. model needs to be established in a way that allows for incorporating both internal and external changes.
10. Linear programming approaches may sometimes address complex issues, even when a computer is at hand. The major problem can be divided into several smaller topics and resolved individually.
11. While the parameters in the model are presumed to be constant, they are typically neither known nor constant in real-world circumstances.
12. Factors that might negatively affect any organization, such as staff demotivation, employee stress, and weather conditions, cannot be considered.
13. Only one objective is addressed, although multi-objective issues arise in real-world contexts.

Linear Programming Objective

The real-valued function whose value must be either maximized or minimized by the restrictions set out on the specified linear programming issue across a collection of potential solutions is the objective function in linear programming problems. It is simply a mathematical phrase that expresses the goal of the task and may be scaled up or down. The goal function has the mathematical formula z = ax + by. You may determine whether you need to maximize or decrease the objective function based on the problem's objective. It frequently indicates expense or profit.

What Does an Objective Function for Linear Programming Entail?

The objective function in linear programming issues is the real-valued function whose value must be either maximized or minimized under the constraints stated on the specific linear programming issue across various viable solutions. It is only a mathematical expression of the task's objective and may be scaled up or down. Z = ax + by is the equation for the goal function. Depending on the goal of the challenge, you could decide whether you need to maximize or reduce the objective function. It typically denotes a cost or gain.

The most popular type of mathematical optimization can very well be linear programming, and several computer tools are available to solve linear programming issues.