Linear Programming

[Friday]

Can someone please help me out understand the best way to determine constraints via
linear programming

[SandyHood]

The constraints are typically inputs such as materials or labour time and the maximum possible sales.
If you are looking graphically there will usually only be 2 products.
Say you have a maximum of 20,000 kgs of raw material available, and product A requires 30 kg per unit and product B requires 25 kg per unit then you can put a constraint together using A to represent the number of product As produced and B to represent the number of product Bs produced.
This gives 30A (30kgs x the number of As) and 25B
and we say that
20,000 cannot be more than 30A +25B
the "cannot be more than" is written as >or= (often a combined symbol)
Once you have the constraint for material you can plot it on the graph, then you plot the next for labour, and any others given, then you add the maximum sales of A and of B and the fact that you cannot have negative sales
When you look at the graph you will see a shape, bordered by the constraints.
The next step is to find the point with the highest contribution (but that is beyond your question).