BDC5101 Deterministic Operations Research: Assignment 1

1. Singapore Airlines operates a hub at the Changi International Airport. During the second
quarter, the airline schedules 7 flights daily from Singapore to Hong Kong and 10 flights
daily from Hong Kong to Singapore, according to the following schedule:

Flight Leave
The flight crews live in Singapore or Hong Kong, and each day a crew must fly one flight
from Singapore to Hong Kong and one flight from Hong Kong to Singapore. A crew must
return to its home city at the end of each day. For example, if a crew originates in Hong
Kong and flies a flight to Singapore, it must then be scheduled for a return flight from
Singapore back to Hong Kong. A crew must have at least 1 hour between flights at the city
where it arrives. Thus, some scheduling combinations are not possible. For example, a crew
on flight 1 from Singapore cannot return on flights A, B, or C from Hong Kong. It is also
possible for a flight to ferry one additional crew to a city in order to fly a return flight, if there
are not enough crews in that city.<interpretation: e.g. if theres not enough sg crews to fly the
return flight from hk to sg, the company can insert one more crew into one of the outbound
flight in order to fill the gap for the returning flight.>
The airline wants to schedule its crews in order to minimize the total amount of crew ground
time (i.e. the time the crew is on ground between flights). Excessive ground time for a crew
lengthens its workday, is bad for crew morale, and is expensive for the airline.
Formulate a linear programming model to determine a flight schedule for the airline.
(Hint: use
 to represent the number of crews take Flight i first and return by Flight j.)
__________________________________________________________________________
Let

 to represent the number of crews take Flight i first and return by Flight j.
 to represent the ground time between the Flight i first taken and return by Flight j.
Min

, ,
,
,, , 


s.t.


 1, 
 1, 
 1


 1,

 1,

 1

 1, 

1

 1, 
 1, 
 1

 0

and

min

 =
 + 3
 + 5
 + 6
 + 9
 + 10
 + 12
 +
 + 3
 +
4
 + 7
 + 8
 + 10
 + 2
 + 3
 + 6
 + 7
 + 9
 +
 + 3
 +
 +
6
 + 8
 + 10
 + 11

+ 5
 + 7
 + 9
 + 10

+ 4
 + 6
 + 8
 +
9

+ 2
 + 4
 + 6
 + 7

+ 2
 + 4
 + 5

+ 2
 + 3

+
 + 2

(Impossible schedule combinations have already been withdrawn from the equation.)

s.t.

 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +
 +

1

 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 1


+

+

+

+

+

+

1

 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +
 1

 +
 +
 +
 +
 1

and

 0,
 0,
 0.

Ans:
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,
 = 1,


= 1
Total amount of crew ground time=
 +
 + 6
 +
 +
 + 6
 + 5
 + 4
 +

 + 3

= %& '()*+ for a total of 10 crews
2. Consider the problem
Minimize 2
 + 3|
 10 |
s.t. |
 + 2 | + |
 | 5.
Reformulate it as a linear programming problem and also present it in the standard LP form.
__________________________________________________________________________
Let , =
 10
Adding additional constraints
s.t.

3
 30 ,
3
 30 ,

 +
 + 2 5

 2,
 0

Min:
s.t.

2
 + 3,
30 3
 ,
3
 30 ,


 2 5

 2,
 0

Ans: / = 11,
 = 2,
 = 5
To present in standard LP form,
Let

, =
 10, , =
 + 2, , =


Problem becomes Min

2
 + 3|, |
|, | + |, | 5
s.t.
To eliminate absolute, sub |, | = ,1 + ,2 , , = ,1 ,2
Therefore, becomes

Min
s.t.

2
 + 3(,1 + ,2 )
,1 + ,2 + ,1 + ,2 5
,1 ,2 =
 10
,1 ,2 =
 + 2
,1 ,2 =

,1 , ,2 ,,1 , ,2 , ,1 , ,2 ,
 ,
 0

3. Consider a road divided into n segments that is illuminated by m lamps. Let 5 be the
power of the j th lamp. The illumination 6 of the i th segment is assumed to be 8
 7 5 ,

where 7 are known coefficients. Let 6  be the desired illumination of road i.
We are interested in choosing the lamp powers 5 so that the illuminations 6 are close to the
desired illumination, 6  . Provide a reasonable linear programming formulation of this
problem. Note that the wording of the problem is loose and there is more than one possible
formulation.
___________________________________________________________________________
Assumptions made:
The desired illumination 6  is the same for all roads, i.e. 6  = 6  = = 6 ; = 6  .
The higher the power of the lamp, the higher the costs incurred. Thus it is reasonable to think
that well try to minimise the lamp power if possible.
Our objective is to get close to the desired illumination. In this case, we assume that the ith
segment of the road needs to be adequately lit-up and the desired illumination is the
minimum requirement.
Hence, the problem becomes
Min

8
where < = 1,2,3, , >.
 7 5
8
8
 7 5 ,  7 5 ,.. 8
 7; 5 .

s.t.

8
 7 5 6 
8
8

8
 7 5 6  ,  7 5 6  ,..,  7; 5 6 ; .

and

5 @
where A = 1,2,3, , B.
5 @, 5 @,.., 58 @.

4. Write the dual for each of the following primal problems:

(a) Maximize
/ = 5
 + 2

s.t.

 +
 2
2
 + 3
 5

 ,
 0
/ =
 +
 <C D + C D >
2
 +
 = 5 <2C 2D + C D 5 >
<2C + 2D C + D 5 >
3

 = 6 <3C 3D C + D 6 >
<3C + 3D + C D 6 >

 ,
 unrestricted <every
 C7EDF @ GF H@>CFIFJ @ C D >
___________________________________________________________________________
/ = 2, + 5,
a) Minimize
s.t.
, + 2, 5
, + 3, 2
, , , 0
(b) Maximise
s.t.

Ans: K = LM
b) Minimize
s.t.

/ = 57 5G + 67 6G
27 2G + 37 3G 1
27 + 2G 37 + 3G 1
7 G 7 + G 1
7 + G + 7 G 1

Ans: K = %. N
5. Consider the following LP with a single constraint:
Min

; H


s.t.

; 7
 = G

 0, < = 1, . . , >.

(a) Derive a simple test for checking the feasibility of this problem.
(b) Assume that the optimal cost is finite, develop a simple method for obtaining the optimal
solution directly.
___________________________________________________________________________
a) Check for feasibility of LP using a 2-phased Simplex Method. Construct the Simple
Phase 1 tableu. If a non zero artificial variable exists at the end, then the LP is not
feasible.

b) Substitution of constraint equation into objective equation as it is an equality

equation.
6. Let
 ,
 , ...,
; be n binary variables and let z be some other binary variable.
Formulate the logical operator by using integer linear program, i.e., write linear constraints so
that
(a) z takes the value of 1 if at least one of the
 s (i = 1, 2, ..., n) takes the value of 1.
(b) If all the
 s take the value of zero, then z takes a value of 0.
(c) z takes the value of 1 if all the
 s take the value of 1.
(d) If any
 (i = 1, 2, ..., n) takes the value of zero, then z takes a value of 0.
_____________________________________________________________________________

a) /
 (< = 1,2,3, , >)

/1

 +
 +
 +
; /

 ,
 ,
 , ,
; 0
b)
 +
 +
 +
; /
/0
c) /
 (< = 1,2,3, , >)
/1
d) /
 (< = 1,2,3, , >)
/0

7.
Let O be the utilities derived from the assignment of school/student. Where < = 1 8, O
P, A = 1 8, O P.
Q,R
R,Q
Max ,S
 + S,


s.t.

R
S
 = 1

R
S
Q = 1
Q
S = 1

Q
R = 1
Q
S = 1

Q
R = 1
R
S
 = 1

R
S
Q = 1

Ans: A - 7, B - 1, C - 6, D - 3, E - 2, F - 5, G - 8, H - 4.