Reference no: EM132838779

Best Computers company makes quarterly decisions about their product mix. While their full product line includes hundreds of products, we will consider a simpler problem with just two products: notebook computers and desktop computers. Best Computers would like to know how many of each product to produce in order to maximize profit for the quarter. There are a number of limits on what Best Computers can produce. The major constraints are as follows:

a. Each computer (either notebook or desktop) requires a Processing Chip. Due to tightness in the market, our supplier has allocated 10,000 such chips to us.

b. Each computer requires memory. Memory comes in 16MB chip sets. A notebook computer has 16MB installed (so needs 1 chip set) while a desktop computer has 32MB (so requires 2 chip sets). We received a great deal on chip sets, so have a stock of 15,000 chip sets to use over the next quarter.

c. Each computer requires assembly time. Due to tight tolerances, a notebook computer takes more time to assemble: 4 minutes versus 3 minutes for a desktop. There are 25,000 minutes of assembly time available in the next quarter.

Given current market conditions, material cost, and our production system, each notebook computer produced generates $750 profit, and each desktop $1,000 profit.

There are many questions Best Computers might ask. But first of all formulate a linear programming model for this problem.

Then, determine the optimal solution for Best Computers to increase the company's profit.