SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Lucban, Quezon

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS:

AIDING ALLIES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report provides an analysis on the case study titled “Aiding Allies” and

it evaluate the constraints and current requirements on the said cities. Methods of

analysis used in the case analysis includes network optimization models such as Network

model in order to show all the nodes, arcs, flow, and paths of the locations. The shortest

path method involves minimizing the distance travelled from the origin to destination, the

maximum flow method provides techniques to utilize the limited requirements to each

given cities and the minimum spanning tree method helps to connect all points for the

communication line as minimum as possible and to minimize the total cost of

reestablishing communication between the given cities in the case study. All calculations

can be found in the appendices. Results of data analyzed shows that the shortest path

from US to Saint Petersburg is BOSTON-LONDON-ST. PETERSBURG with total travel

time of 12.71 hours. The shortest path from US to Moscow is BOSTON-LONDON-

MOSCOW with a total travel time of 13.21 hours. The shortest path from US to Rostov is

BOSTON-BERLIN-ROSTOV with a total travel time of 13.95 hours and the network

diagram can be found also in the appendices. The Russian city’s military requirements at

minimum cost is satisfied. The total cost of operation is equals to $412,866,666. The

entire supply for the Saint Petersburg is supplies from Jacksonville via London. The entire

supply for Moscow is supplied from Boston via Hamburg. The 240,000 tons demanded

by Rostov are divided as follows, 60 are shipped from Boston via Istanbul, 150 are

shipped from Jacksonville via Istanbul, and 30 are shipped from Jacksonville via London.

The paths can be found in the appendices. The flow of from US to Russian cities that the

President wants to maximize is also solved and the amount or the total supply for Saint

Petersburg, Moscow, and Rostov is equals to 225,000 tons, 104,800 tons, 192,400 tons

respectively. Lastly the cost to reestablish the Communication lines is $770,000.

Introduction:

The siege starts the following way in a cold night in October in Russia.

Commander Votachev and his two years dream of work and training revolutionaries east

of the Ural Mountains has proved successful; his troops now occupy seven strategically

important cities in the Russian Federation: Kazan, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Samara,

Saratov, and Orenburg. His siege is not yet over, however. He looks to the west. Given

the political and economic confusion in the Russian Federation at this time, he knows that

his troops will be able to conquer Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Rostov shortly. Across

the Pacific Ocean, a meeting of the top security and foreign policy advisers of the United

States is in progress at the White House. The President has recently been briefed about

the communist revolution masterminded by Commander Votachev and is determining a

plan of action. The President reflects upon a similar October long ago in 1917, and he

fears the possibility of a new age of radical Communist rule accompanied by chaos,

bloodshed, escalating tensions, and possibly nuclear war. He therefore decides that the

United States needs to respond and to respond quickly. Moscow has requested

assistance from the United States military, and the President plans to send troops and

supplies immediately. The President turns to General Lankletter and asks him to describe

the preparations being taken in the United States to send the necessary troops and

supplies to the Russian Federation.

General Lankletter informs the President that along with troops, weapons,

ammunition, fuel, and supplies, aircraft, ships, and vehicles are being assembled at two

port cities with airfields: Boston and Jacksonville. The aircraft and ships will transfer all

troops and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean to the Eurasian continent. The general hands

the President a list of the types of aircraft, ships, and vehicles being assembled along

with a description of each type.

All aircraft, ships, and vehicles can carry both troops and cargo. Once an aircraft or ship

arrives in Europe, it stays there to support the armed forces.

 The President then turns to Tabitha Neal, who has been negotiating with the

NATO countries for the last several hours to use their ports and airfields as stops to refuel

and resupply before heading to the Russian Federation. She informs the President that

the following ports and airfields in the NATO countries will be made available to the United

States military.

The President stands and walks to the map of the world projected on a large

screen in the middle of the room. He maps the progress of troops and cargo from the

United States to three strategic cities in the Russian Federation that have not yet been

seized by Commander Votachev. The three cities are Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and

Rostov. He explains that the troops and cargo will be used both to defend the Russian

cities and to launch a counterattack against Votachev to recapture the cities he currently

occupies.

The President also explains that all Starlifters and transports leave Boston or

Jacksonville. All transports that have traveled across the Atlantic must dock at one of the

NATO ports to unload. Palletized load system trucks brought over in the transports will

then carry all troops and materials unloaded from the ships at the NATO ports to the three

strategic Russian cities not yet seized by Votachev. All Starlifters that have traveled

across the Atlantic must land at one of the NATO airfields for refueling. The planes will

then carry all troops and cargo from the NATO airfields to the three Russian cities.

Key Issues

The United States decided to help the Russian Federation from the war started

and leaded by Commander Votachev. The president is determining a plan of action to

help these cities. A network of possible routes is needed to foresee which path will use to

transport troops and supplies to reach the Russian Federation from the United States.

Moscow and Washington do not know when Commander Votachev will launch

his next attack. The president is so dire to help that the cost is no object – as many
Starlifters, transports and trucks as are necessary will be used to transfer troops to reach

each three strategic Russian cities as quickly as possible. The President encounters one

problem, he must sell the military deployment to Congress because they will not authorize

significant spending for another country’s war. While selling this strategy to the congress

they need to satisfy each Russian city’s military requirements at minimum cost.

They learn that several additional restrictions exist which cannot be

immediately eliminated, because of airfield congestion and unalterable flight schedules,

only a limited number of planes may be sent between any two cities. Because some

countries fear that citizens will become alarmed if too many military trucks travel the public

highways, they give a limited number of trucks able to travel between certain ports and

Russian cities. The President realizes that because of all the restrictions he will not be

able to satisfy all the reinforcement requirements, so he decided to disregard cost issue

and instead to maximize the total amount of cargo to the Strategic Russian cities.

Commander Votachev was imprisoned, and the next step became rebuilding

the seven cities razed by his armies. After the war, the President’s top priority is to help

Russian government to reestablish communications between the seven Russian cities

and Moscow at minimum cost.

Decision Criteria

A network of strategy that shows possible routes connecting Boston and

Jacksonville to Moscow, Rostov, and St. Petersburg, analyzing and verifying the

distances in kilometers of their NATO Airfields and ports all around the United States,

Europe and Russia. Considering this data, finding the fastest and shortest path to get to

the three strategic Russian cities considering the length of route in kilometers and speed

per mile.

Minimizing transportation cost while satisfying each strategic cities in the Russian

Federation. With the additional constraints of the NATO cities that cannot be eliminated,
the transportation network should maximize the total amount of cargo that reaches the

Russian Federation.

The price of installing communication lines between any two Russian cities varies

given the cost of shipping wire to the area, the level of destruction in the area, and the

roughness of the terrain will be considering minimizing the cost of reestablishing

communication lines.

Assumptions

There are three types of transportation namely Aircraft (C-141 Starlifter), Ship

(Transport), and Vehicle (Palletized Load System Truck) that will transport troops and

supplies with the capacity of 150 tons on Aircraft, 240 tons on Ship, and 16000 kilograms

on Vehicle using the network model you will find possible route to reach the strategic

cities in the Russian Federation from the United States. All aircraft, ships, and vehicles

can carry both troops and cargo. Once an aircraft or ship arrives in Europe, it stays there

to support the armed forces. Using the Shortest path Method will be a great help to find

the fastest way to quickly move troops from United States to Rostov, Moscow and St.

Petersburg. No limitations exist on the number of troops and amount of cargo that can be

transferred between any cities.

Length of route in Speed in

From To
km mi/hr
Boston Berlin 7,250 400
Boston Hamburg 8,250 35
Boston Istanbul 8,300 400
Boston London 6,200 400
Boston Rotterdam 6,900 35
Boston Napoli 7,950 35
Jacksonville Berlin 9,200 400
Jacksonville Hamburg 9,800 35
Jacksonville Istanbul 10,100 400
Jacksonville London 7,900 400
Jacksonville Rotterdam 8,900 35
Jacksonville Napoli 9,400 35
Berlin Saint Petersburg 1,280 400
 Hamburg Saint Petersburg 1,880 60
Istanbul Saint Petersburg 2,040 400
London Saint Petersburg 1,980 400
Rotterdam Saint Petersburg 2,200 60
Napoli Saint Petersburg 2,970 60
Berlin Moscow 1,600 400
Hamburg Moscow 2,120 60
Istanbul Moscow 1,700 400
London Moscow 2,300 400
Rotterdam Moscow 2,450 60
Napoli Moscow 2,890 60
Berlin Rostov 1,730 400
Hamburg Rostov 2,470 60
Istanbul Rostov 990 400
London Rostov 2,860 400
Rotterdam Rostov 2,760 60
Napoli Rostov 2,800 60

Each Russian city has contacted Washington to communicate the number of

troops and supplies the city needs at a minimum for reinforcement. After analyzing the

requests, General Lankletter has converted the requests from numbers of troops, gallons

of gasoline, etc. to tons of cargo for easier planning. The requirements in St. Petersburg

is 320,000 tons, Moscow is 440,000 and 240,000 in Rostov. Using the Maximum Flow to

find maximum load that will transport military requirements at minimum transportation cost.

Transportation
From To Cost
Type
Boston Berlin 50,000 Starlifter
Boston Hamburg 30,000 Transport
Boston Istanbul 55,000 Starlifter

Boston London 45,000 Starlifter

Boston Rotterdam 30,000 Transport
Boston Napoli 32,000 Transport
Jacksonville Berlin 57,000 Starlifter
Jacksonville Hamburg 48,000 Transport
Jacksonville Istanbul 61,000 Starlifter
Jacksonville London 49,000 Starlifter
 Jacksonville Rotterdam 44,000 Transport
Jacksonville Napoli 56,000 Transport

Saint
Berlin 24,000 Starlifter
Petersburg

Saint
Hamburg 3,000 Truck
Petersburg

Saint
Istanbul 28,000 Starlifter
Petersburg

Saint
London 22,000 Starlifter
Petersburg

Saint
Rotterdam 3,000 Truck
Petersburg

Saint
Napoli 5,000 Truck
Petersburg
Berlin Moscow 22,000 Starlifter
Hamburg Moscow 4,000 Truck

Istanbul Moscow 25,000 Starlifter

London Moscow 19,000 Starlifter
Rotterdam Moscow 5,000 Truck
Napoli Moscow 5,000 Truck
Berlin Rostov 23,000 Starlifter
Hamburg Rostov 7,000 Truck
Istanbul Rostov 2,000 Starlifter
London Rostov 4,000 Starlifter
Rotterdam Rostov 8,000 Truck
Napoli Rostov 9,000 Truck

Because some countries fear that citizens will become alarmed if too many military

trucks travel the public highways, they object to many trucks travelling through their

countries. Some countries objected so a limited number of trucks can travel between

certain ports and Russian cities and because of airfield congestion and alterable flights

schedules, only a limited number of planes may be sent between any two cities. Using

the Maximum Flow to find maximum transport load with additional constraints that limits

the number of trucks and aircraft.

 From To Maximum

Rotterdam Moscow 600 Trucks

Rotterdam Rostov 750 Trucks

Hamburg Moscow 700 Trucks

Hamburg Rostov 500 Trucks

Napoli Moscow 1500 Trucks

Napoli Rostov 1400 Trucks

From To Maximum

Boston Berlin 300 airplanes

Boston Istanbul 500 airplanes

Boston London 500 airplanes

Jacksonville Berlin 500 airplanes

Jacksonville Istanbul 700 airplanes

Jacksonville London 600 airplanes

Berlin St. Petersburg 500 airplanes

Istanbul St. Petersburg 0 airplanes

London St. Petersburg 1000 airplanes

Berlin Moscow 300 airplanes

Istanbul Moscow 100 airplanes

London Moscow 200 airplanes

Berlin Rostov 0 airplanes

Istanbul Rostov 900 airplanes

London Rostov 100 airplanes

 Rebuilding the seven cities communication lines the Minimum Spanning Tree will

greatly help to connect the countries with minimum cost of reestablishing communication

lines.

Between Cost to Reestablish Communication

Lines

St. Petersburg and Kazan 210,000

St. Petersburg and Perm 185,000

St. Petersburg and Ufa 225,000

Moscow and Ufa 310,000

Moscow and Samara 195,000

Moscow and Orenburg 440,000

Moscow and Saratov 140,000

Rostov and Saratov 200,000

Rostov and Orenburg 120,000

Kazan and Perm 150,000

Kazan and Ufa 105,000

Kazan and Samara 95,000

Perm and Yekaterinburg 85,000

Perm and Ufa 125,000

Yekaterinburg and Ufa 100,000

Ufa and Samara 75,000

Ufa and Orenburg 100,000

Saratov and Samara 95,000

Saratov and Orenburg 75,000

Data Analysis
Figure 1

Figure 1 shows all the different routes that troops and supplies may pass through

to reach the Russian Federation. The network design or the network model shows all the

nodes, arcs, flow, and paths of the locations that the troops and supplies may possible to

move through.

The President is only concerned about how to most quickly move troops and

supplies from the United States to the three strategic Russian cities because they don’t

know when Commander Votachev will launch his attack. The best way to accomplish this

goal is to find the fastest route between the United States and the three cities. Therefore,

shortest path method is used to find the shortest path between the US cities and each of

the three Russian cities. The President only cares about the time it takes to get the troops

and supplies to Russia. The arc length between two nodes is assumed to be the time it

takes to travel between respective cities. The distance of the shortest path Boston and

London, London to Saint Petersburg is equals 6,200 km and 1,980 km respectively, the

mode of transportation between this cities is an aircraft “Starlifter” traveling at a speed of

400 miles per hour multiply this to miles per hour then multiply this to 1.609 km per hour

and it is equals to 643.6 km per hour. The total distance of the two destination is 8,180

divide this by 643.6 km per hour and it is equals to 12.709 hours. By using this approach

the time of travel along all arcs in the network is computed. The following shortest path

between each US cities Boston and Jacksonville and each Russian cities St. Petersburg,

Moscow, and Rostov were computed as follows using spreadsheet solver (see

Appendices Table 1-6).

Table 1.0: Boston to St. Petersburg

Total Distance in km 8,180

Total Time 12.70976

Table 1.1: Boston to Moscow

 Total Distance in km 8,500
Total Time 13.20696

Table1.2: Boston to Rostov

Total Distance in km 8,980

Total Time 13.95277

Table 1.3: Jacksonville to St. Petersburg

Total Distance in km 9,880

Total Time 15.35115

Table 1.4: Jacksonville to Moscow

Total Distance in km 10,200

Total Time 15.848353

Table 1.5: Jacksonville to Rostov

Total Distance in km 10,760

Total Time 17

Therefore, by comparing all six solutions the shortest path from the US to Saint

Petersburg is Boston-London-Saint Petersburg with a total travel time of 12.71 hours. The

shortest path from the US to Moscow is Boston-London-Moscow with a total travel time

of 13.95 hours. Lastly the US to Rostov shortest path is Boston-Berlin-Rostov.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 2 and 3 depicts all the shortest path mentioned on the above paragraph.

Meanwhile, the Russian city’s requirements must be satisfied by the President at

minimum cost. To satisfy the requirements maximum flow model is used to solve the

problem. The supply nodes are represented by the US cities (Boston and Jacksonville)
with a supply of 500,000 tons. The nodes represented by Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and

Rostov is the demand nodes with a demand of 320,000 tons, 440,000 tons, 240,000 tons

respectively. Furthermore, all the transshipment nodes were represented by European

airfields and ports. Capacity constraints are given, all arcs from the European ports into

Saint Petersburg have zero capacity. The truck routes from European ports into Rostov

have a transportation limit of 40,000 tons. In addition 200 flights from Berlin to Rostov is

required while each aircraft have a capacity of 200 tons resulting in 30,000 tons arc

capacity for both the arcs connecting the nodes London and Berlin to Rostov. The arcs

along the network have a unit cost of $1000 per 1000 tons. To satisfy all the constraints

at a minimum cost. The spreadsheet below shows the solution to the model (see

Appendices Table 7).

Table 2.0: Total Cost of Operation

Total Cost $ 412,866,667

The minimum cost of the operation is equals to $412,866,666. Jacksonville via London is

the path to supply all the requirements for Saint Petersburg. The entire supply for Moscow

is supplied from Boston via Hamburg. The 240,000 tons demanded by Rostov are divided

as follows, 60 are shipped from Boston via Istanbul, 150 are shipped from Jacksonville

via Istanbul, and 30 are shipped from Jacksonville via London.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows the path where supplies were shipped to Saint Petersburg,

Moscow, and Rostov.

Moreover, the President demanded to maximize the flow from the two US cities to

the three Russian cities. European ports and airfield represents transshipment nodes.

Using the same approach as mentioned on paragraph four, the flow along an arc

represents the capacity measured in tons. The objective is to maximize the flow into three

Russian cities (see Appendices Table 8).

 Table 3.0: Maximum Total Cargo

Saint Petersburg -225,000 225,000

Moscow -104,800 104,800
Rostov -192,400 192,400
Maximum
= 522,200
shipment

Table 3.0 shows the maximum shipment in equals to 522,200 tons and it is

allocated for Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Rostov by 225,000 tons, 104,800 tons, and

192,400 tons respectively.

Figure 5

Figure 5 shows the network and the paths used to ship the supplies from US to

the Russian Federation.

Finally, in establishing communication lines at the least cost between Moscow and

all the seven Russian cities minimum spanning tree model is used to this approach. In

this method the path that has the lowest value is chosen until all nodes is connected and

the number of chosen paths is equal to number of nodes less than one. Because Rostov

and St. Petersburg are already connected to Moscow and the cost of connecting them to

other countries is more than the cost of connecting Moscow to other countries. The total

least cost of reestablishing communication line is $770,000.

Figure 6

Figure 6 depicts the network paths of the reestablished communication lines at

least cost.

Recommendations
Operations research (OR) is an analytical method of problem-solving and decision-

making that is useful in the management of organizations. In operations research,

problems are broken down into basic components and then solved in defined steps by

mathematical analysis. (Rouse, 2011) Using these methods of operations research will
greatly help the decision maker of creating strategies. It can be applied to this case in

developing a strategic plan of helping Russian countries. The shortest path method is

used to determine the fastest route of getting to these countries considering only the

distance and speed of the transportation type. The study will be more comprehensive if

additional considerations is used like the weather of the possible departure of planes and

ships. Maximum flow method is used in this study in determining the maximum capacity

of transporting the troops and their requirements to the sink as the Russian countries. It

also used in considering the cost of transport and computed using spreadsheet solver

with the given constraints. The answer from this solver is expected to be the maximum

transport having the minimum cost for having an objective function of Shipment multiplied

by the cost per ton. For this study we can consider the route that will be use if it can

handle the number of trucks that utilize the roads. If any possible short-cut can be used

to minimize the distance. The solutions for this case can be improve when additional

considerations or terms is considered.

Conclusion:

It only took good intelligence and proper method on formulating strategies.

Methods like shortest-path, maximum flow method and the minimal spanning tree are

some of the methods for transportation problems. Figure 1, shows the possible routes

that satisfy the needs of the strategic Russian Countries. The Figure 2 in the appendices

illustrates the shortest path that satisfy the requirement of the strategy that is to reach the

destination as quickly as possible. The shortest paths are: Boston to St. Petersburg

having a total distance of 8,180 km and a total time of 12.7098 hours, Boston to Moscow

having a total distance of 8,500 km and a total time of 13.2070 hours and the Boston to

Rotterburg with 8,980 km and a total time of 13.9528 hours. For the maximum

requirement that can transport from the source—Boston and Jacksonville to the strategic

Russian countries namely St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Rostov. 500,000 tons will be

transported from this source. Boston will transport 440,00 tons to Hamburg, it also

transports 60,000 tons to Istanbul. Jacksonville transports 150,000 tons to Istanbul, it also
transports 350,000 tons to London. Then London will transport to St. Petersburg 320,000

tons and Hamburg to Moscow 440,000. Rostov will receive 240,000 tons from Istanbul

and London. With the Least cost pf $ 412,866.67 the requirements are maximized. With

the additional conditions and disregarding the cost the Figure d illustrates the network

that shows the flow of transporting requirements with regards to its new constraints. The

maximum capacity that can be transported by this strategy is 522,200 tons. And after the

war when the next plan is to reestablish the communication lines the minimum cost that

needed is $770,00. The plan is illustrated in networks. (See appendices).

References:

Hillier & Lieberman, (2005). Introduction to Operation Research, New York, NY:

McGraw-Hill

Weida, Richardson & Vazsonyi, (2000). Operations Analysis Using Microsoft Excel,

California, CA: Pacific Grove

Richard Bronson & Govindasami Naadimuthu, (1997). Operation Research

Schaum’s out lines, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Rouse Margett (https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/operations-research-OR)