Question

Linear programming is an excellent technique yet is not applied nearly enough in the “real world.” Discuss the benefits of linear programming and explain why it is not used that much

Answer 1

The key benefits of Linear programming is that it provides a optimum solution when several issues are considered. Every business needs to make decisions by considering tradeoffs and constraints. In such instances, Linear Programming can provide the optimal solution that will yield maximum benefit or minimize the damage. In either way, the only other alternative to Linear programming is use of heuristic, which can be lengthy and inaccurate. Performing manual trial and error can eventually help us obtain optimum solutions but it is time consuming and expensive on opportunity, resource and effort. Thus Linear Programming provides a very well structured approach to solving problem when we need to decide on optimum solution.

However, in spite of all these benefits, Linear programming is not often used. This is because one of the key requirement of Linear Programming is that it needs a set of constraints to operate. Now, in real world situation the constraints are never straight forward or transparent. As a result, if we choose wrong constraint, we are likely to obtain a solution which will not be optimal and can instead be hazardous. This is why the Linear Programming modelling requires careful thought and preparation. In real world identifying the constraints and the various dependencies makes the overall process a little complicated. Also we need to convert any qualitative measures into a quantitative value. This is easier said than done in real world. That is why it is not used that much.