Computational Procedures for Solving Linear Programming Problems

Abstract

As we have seen in Ch. II¹, the simplex procedure can be described as a systematic method of examining the set of basic feasible solutions, starting in an arbitrary initial basis of m variables (activities) where m is the number of linear restrictions. If the initial basic solution does not satisfy the simplex criterion, we move to a neighbouring basis by replacing one of the basic variables, and so forth, until a basic feasible solution is attained in which all of the simplex coefficients are non-positive (in a minimization problem, non-negative). By the Fundamental Theorem, such a solution will be an optimal solution.