Generalised Problems

Abstract

Many problems appear to be very similar to the transportation problem and special methods have been constructed for their solution (Hadley III, p. 314). Fergusson and Dantzig¹⁸ have described a model for routing aircraft to maximise expected profits with uncertain customer demands. In the first stage they solve the fixed demand problem. B. W. Saunders¹⁹ (private communication) has been concerned with the allocation of products to warehouse space and the author has solved a manufacturing problem. All of these exhibit very similar characteristics. Another type of extension was produced by the author with A. J. Smith,²⁰ which enabled the coal allocation problems of Chapter 6 to be solved explicitly.