Manpower Planning 231
18.6 SOLVING AGGREGATE PLANNING PROBLEMS
BYLINEAR PROGRAMMING: AN EXAMPLE
The linear programming can be used to nd the optimal solution to the example presented in Section
18.4. Assume the cost coefcients are constant with respect to time, so the objective function is
Minimize 500 1000 80
1
6
1
6
1
6
H F I
t t t
ttt
+ +
⎛
⎝
⎜
⎞
⎠
⎟
===
∑∑∑
Additional constraints for each boundary condition are added to represent the initial inventory of
500 units, the initial workforce of 300 workers, and the ending inventory of 600 units.
Substituting t = 1, …, 6 into Equations 18.1 through 18.3 obtains the constraints. The full set of
constraints expressed in standard linear programming format is as follows:
W W H F
W W H F
W W H F
W W H F
1 1 1
2 1