 |
| Application Areas of Linear Programming |
|
|
| |
| Goods have to be transported from sources (like factories) to destinations (like warehouses) on a regular basis. The transportation problem deals with minimising the costs in doing so. Linear programming effectively deals with this problem. |
| |
|
| |
| To provide the required protection at the minimum cost, linear programming is used. This technique is useful to cause maximum damage to the enemy with minimum fuel/cost. |
| |
|
| |
| Linear programming is used to find the variations in water storage of dams which generate power, thus maximising the energy got from the entire system. |
| |
|
| |
| If we are given the number of persons, number of jobs and the expected productivity of a particular person on a particular job, linear programming is used to maximise the average productivity of a person. |
| |
|
| |
| A travelling sales man can find the shortest routes to save time / fuel cost. The most economic and efficient manner of locating manufacturing plants and distribution centres may be used. |
| |
| Linear programming may be used for effective and efficient production management and manpower management. |
| |
| Different Types (Methods) of Linear Programming |
|
| Some of the methods of linear programming are: |
| |
 The Graphical Method |
| |
|
The Analytical Method |
| |
|
The Simplex Method |
| |
| In the graphical method, the constraints are actually drawn as straight lines and the optimal solution is found. This method is explained in detail later. |
| |
| The graphical method is not applicable to linear programming problems with more than 2 variables. Then, the analytical method may be used. Here, equations are solved by assuming some variables to be zero. However, this method is tedious and time consuming. |
| |
| The simplex method overcomes these difficulties and gives successive solutions that improve progressively to give the optimal solution. |
| |
