Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management, Twelfth Edition

Requirements of a Linear Programming Problem

All LP problems have four requirements: an objective, constraints, alternatives, and linearity:

1. LP problems seek to maximize or minimize some quantity (usually profit or cost). We refer to this property as the objective function of an LP problem. The major objective of a typical firm is to maximize dollar profits in the long run. In the case of a trucking or airline distribution system, the objective might be to minimize shipping costs.

   Objective function

   A mathematical expression in linear programming that maximizes or minimizes some quantity (often profit or cost, but any goal may be used).

2. The presence of restrictions, or constraints, limits the degree to which we can pursue our objective. ...