10. Flatland UK Ltd makes three types of carpet, the Lincoln, the Norfolk and the Suffolk. The carpets all require units of black, green and red wool.
For each roll of carpet, the Lincoln requires 1 unit of black, 1 of green and 3 of red, the Norfolk requires 1 unit of black, 2 of green and 2 of red, and the Suffolk requires 2 units of black, 1 of green and 1 of red.
There are up to 30 units of black, 40 units of green and 50 units of red available each day.
Profits of \(\pounds 50 , \pounds 80\) and \(\pounds 60\) are made on each roll of Lincoln, Norfolk and Suffolk respectively. Flatland UK Ltd wishes to maximise its profit.
Let the number of rolls of the Lincoln, Norfolk and Suffolk made daily be \(x , y\) and \(z\) respectively.
- Formulate the above situation as a linear programming problem, listing clearly the constraints as inequalities in their simplest form, and stating the objective function.
This problem is to be solved using the Simplex algorithm. The most negative number in the profit row is taken to indicate the pivot column at each stage.
- Stating your row operations, show that after one complete iteration the tableau becomes
| Basic variable | \(x\) | \(y\) | \(z\) | \(r\) | \(s\) | \(t\) | Value |
| \(r\) | \(\frac { 1 } { 2 }\) | 0 | \(1 \frac { 1 } { 2 }\) | 1 | \(- \frac { 1 } { 2 }\) | 0 | 10 |
| \(y\) | \(\frac { 1 } { 2 }\) | 1 | \(\frac { 1 } { 2 }\) | 0 | \(\frac { 1 } { 2 }\) | 0 | 20 |
| \(t\) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 10 |
| \(P\) | -10 | 0 | -20 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 1600 |
You may not need to use all of the tableaux.
| Basic variable | \(x\) | \(y\) | \(z\) | \(r\) | \(s\) | \(t\) | Value | Row operations |
| \(r\) | | | | | | | | |
| \(S\) | | | | | | | | |
| \(t\) | | | | | | | | |
| \(P\) | | | | | | | | |
| Basic variable | \(x\) | \(y\) | \(z\) | \(r\) | \(s\) | \(t\) | Value | Row operations |
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- Explain the practical meaning of the value 10 in the top row.
- Perform one further complete iteration of the Simplex algorithm.
| Basic variable | \(x\) | \(y\) | \(z\) | \(r\) | \(s\) | \(t\) | Value | Row operations |
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| Basic variable | \(x\) | \(y\) | \(z\) | \(r\) | \(s\) | \(t\) | Value | Row operations |
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- State whether your current answer to part (d)(i) is optimal. Give a reason for your answer.
- Interpret your current tableau, giving the value of each variable.
(8)