Gomory Cutting Plane Method Examples: Integer Programming

In the previous section, we used Gomory cutting plane method to solve an Integer programming problem. In this section, we provide another example to enhance your knowledge. Let's concentrate on the following example:

example Example 2: Gomory Cutting Plane Method

Maximize z = x1 + 4x2

subject to
2x1 + 4x2 ≤ 7
5x1 + 3x2 ≤ 15

x1, x2 are integers ≥ 0

Solution.

First, solve the above problem by applying the simplex method (try it yourself).The final simplex table is presented below.

Final Simplex Table

  cj 1 4 0 0  
cB Basic variables
B
x1 x2 x3 x4 Solution values
b (=XB)
4 x2 1/2 1 1/4 0 7/4 (1 + 3/4)
0 x4 7/2 0 -3/4 1 39/4 (9 + 3/4)
zj–cj   1 0 1 0  

Taking first row as the source row, the corresponding equation is
1/2x1 + 1x2 + 1/4x3 + 0x4 = 1 + 3/4
1/2x1 + (1 + 0)x2 + (1 - 3/4)x3 = 1 + 3/4

Gomory's constraint
- (1/2x1 - 3/4x3) ≤ -3/4
-1/2x1 + 3/4x3 + x5 = -3/4

Table

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  cj 1 4 0 0 0   
cB Basic variables
B
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 Solution values
b (=XB)
4 x2 1/2 1 1/4 0 0 7/4
0 x4 7/2 0 -3/4 1 0 39/4
0 x5 -1/2 0 3/4 0 1 - 3/4
zj–cj   1 0 1 0 0  

Table

  cj 1 4 0 0 0  
cB Basic variables
B
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 Solution values
b (=XB)
4 x2 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 x4 0 0 9/2 1 7 9/2 (4+1/2)
1 x1 1 0 -3/2 0 -2 3/2 (1+1/2)
zj–cj   0 0 5/2 0 2  

Taking second row as the source row, the corresponding equation is:
0x1 + 0x2 + 9/2x3 + 1x4 + 7x5 = 4 + 1/2
or  (4 + 1/2)x3 + (1 + 0)x4 + (7 + 0)x5 = 4 + 1/2

Gomory's constraint
-1/2x3 ≤ -1/2
-1/2x3 + x6 = -1/2

Table

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  cj 1 4 0 0 0 0  
cB Basic variables
B
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 Solution values
b (=XB)
4 x2 0 1 1 0 1 0 1
0 x4 0 0 9/2 1 7 0 9/2
1 x1 1 0 -3/2 0 -2 0 3/2
0 x6 0 0 -1/2 0 0 1 -1/2
zj–cj   0 0 5/2 0 2 0  

In the above table, there is a negative value under XB column; therefore, apply the dual simplex method.

Final Table: Gomory Cutting Plane Method

  cj 1 4 0 0 0 0  
cB Basic variables
B
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 Solution values
b (=XB)
4 x2 0 1 0 0 1 2 0
0 x4 0 0 0 1 7 9 0
1 x1 1 0 0 0 -2 -3 3
0 x3 0 0 1 0 0 -2 1
zj–cj   0 0 0 0 2 5  

The optimal solution is
x1 = 3, x2 = 0
z = 3 + 4 X 0 = 3

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