Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
of SEEM, CUHK
Chapter 1
Introduction and Course Overview
Objective Function:
In many OR problems, the decision maker wants to maximize (usually profit) or minimize (usually cost) a function of the decision
variables. The function to be maximized or minimized is called the
objective function.
Parameters:
The constants in the objective function and constraints are called
parameters.
of
values
for
the
decision
variables
A feasible solution:
A solution for which all the constraints are satisfied.
An infeasible solution:
A solution for which at least one constraint is violated.
The feasible region:
The collection of all feasible solutions. Note that it is possible for
a problem to have no feasible solutions.
An optimal solution:
A feasible solution that has the most favorable value of the objective
function, i.e., the largest value if the objective function is to be
maximized or the smallest value if the objective function is to be
minimized.
2x1 + 7x2 14
x1
6
(Constraints)
x1
0
x2 0
x2
x1
10
11
x2
x1
Question: How to find the optimal solution and the corresponding optimal value?
12
13
10
9
8
7
f(x)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0.2 0.1
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
x
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
14
max
x1 ,x2
300
f(x1,x2)
200
100
100
16
14
12
10
8
x2
10
12
14
x1
16
18
20
22
15
16
17
7
4
1
0
3
5
3
6
18
Total
Purchasing
Shortage
Holding
= /production +
.
+
inventory
cost
cost
cost
cost
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1.6. OR Software
In practice, where typical OR problems may involve thousands of
variables and constraints, the only feasible way to solve such models is
to use the computer.
Excel Solver
Solver is an add-in package to Microsoft Office Excel that numerically solve some classes of OR problems.
It is particularly appealing to spreadsheet users.
It is capable of solving LP, MILP and NLP problems (locally).
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