Problem 8-1: Winkler Furniture LP Formulation

Winkler Furniture manufactures two types of china cabinets: French Provincial and Danish Modern. Each cabinet requires time in three departments: carpentry, painting, and finishing, with specific capacities for each department and a daily revenue goal. The goal is to determine the optimal product mix that maximizes daily revenue under the following constraints:

Given Data:

1. Time per Cabinet in Each Department (hours):

   • French Provincial:
     • Carpentry: 3 hours
     • Painting: 1.5 hours
     • Finishing: 0.75 hours
   • Danish Modern:
     • Carpentry: 2 hours
     • Painting: 1 hour
     • Finishing: 0.75 hours

2. Department Capacities (hours per day):

   • Carpentry: 360 hours
   • Painting: 200 hours
   • Finishing: 125 hours

3. Net Revenue per Cabinet:

   • French Provincial: $28
   • Danish Modern: $25

4. Minimum Production Requirement:

   • 300 cabinets per week (60 cabinets per day) in total for both types combined.

(a) Formulation as an LP Problem:

Decision Variables:

Let:

• $x_1$ = Number of French Provincial cabinets produced per day.
• $x_2$ = Number of Danish Modern cabinets produced per day.

Objective Function:

Maximize the daily revenue: $\text{Maximize } Z = 28x_1 + 25x_2$

Constraints:

1. Carpentry time constraint: $3x_1 + 2x_2 \leq 360$

2. Painting time constraint: $1.5x_1 + 1x_2 \leq 200$

3. Finishing time constraint: $0.75x_1 + 0.75x_2 \leq 125$

4. Minimum production requirement: $x_1 + x_2 \geq 60$

5. Non-negativity constraint: $x_1 \geq 0, \quad x_2 \geq 0$

(b) Solution:

To solve this linear programming problem, you can input the objective function and constraints into an LP software or a solver like Excel Solver or Python libraries such as SciPy or PuLP.

Would you like me to help solve this LP problem using a tool or provide further explanation on any step?

Additional Practice:

Here are 5 questions you can try:

1. What would happen to the optimal solution if the capacity for the finishing department increased?
2. How would the problem change if you were required to produce a minimum of 40 French Provincial cabinets?
3. How can you adjust the model if you wanted to maximize profit instead of revenue?
4. How would the objective function change if the revenue for Danish Modern increased to $30?
5. What happens if the painting department's time is reduced to 150 hours?

Tip: When formulating LP problems, clearly define decision variables and constraints based on the context provided to ensure accurate problem-solving.