Just For You Ltd

Recently, your town has built a new venue to be used by small bands,
comedians and speakers to provide students with a new activity to
entertain them. The first event being held is going to be by a local band.
The designers of the venue have been asked to arrange the audience area
of the venue. This involves deciding the correct amount of floor-level
seating and raked seating to incorporate into their design, in order for the
band to make as much profit from the event as possible.
They do not have a budget, therefore they can buy as many materials as
they like for this project, however they need to consider the actual cost of
the floor-level seating and raked seating, the
ticket price of an audience member in either one
of these seated positions and what effect this
will all have on the overall profit.
Can you help the designers come to a
conclusion as to the correct amount of floor-level
seating and raked seating to incorporate into
their plan, in order to reach their main aim of
maximising the profit?
Modelling
First of all, there are a few bits of information that we must consider
before we start.

The venue size is 16m x 11m therefore it is important to ensure that

the standing space and seating space fits into this size fully (i.e. you
cannot have half a chair, nor half a standing position).
There must be a 1m gap around the edge of the venue, and a 1m
aisle down the middle.
The company specifies that there must be floor-level seating and
raked seating. The floor-level seating must be positioned together at
the front, and the raked seating must be at the back of the venue.
The band specifies that the seating should be organised in rows of
16 minimum.
There must be a 0.5m gap between each row of floor-level seating.
The size of a floor-level chair is 0.5m x 0.5m.
The space which a raked seat takes up is 1mx1m.

1. What are the different combinations of floor-level seating and raked

seating possible? (i.e. ensuring that the whole room is filled as
much as possible). Use the modelling packs to help you
investigate.
(Note: After you have found a few combinations, it may be easier to
think of a formula to use to calculate the rest of the combinations.)
We are now given the following costs of the materials:

A floor-level chair costs 15.

A raked seat costs 8.

The prices of tickets are also given as follows:

A ticket to sit in the floor-level seating area is 25.

A ticket to sit in the raked seating area is 23.

2. Using this information about prices, what combination of floor-level

seating and raked seating give the greatest profit? (Use your results
from question 1.)
We want to make the most amount of profit as possible, therefore it is
important to find the best design for the audience area as possible, with
these costs and prices in mind. At the moment, the only thing stopping us
from doing this, is the size of the room (16m x 11m, as given), and the
fact that the band would like the seating to be organised into rows of 16
minimum.
The council have also told us now however, that the maximum capacity of
the venue is 220 people.
3. Looking at your table, what combination of floor-level seating and
raked seating gives the greatest profit now?
These are called constraints on the resources.
We can model constraints using algebra.
The constraints for this model can be modelled using two variables:
R the number of people in raked seating
F the number of people in floor-level seating

4. Recalling that seating must be organised into rows of 16 minimum,

and that there must be floor-level seating and raked seating, can
you write an equation which shows the greatest amount rows of
raked seating which could be used?
5. Similarly, can you write an equation which shows the greatest
amount of rows of floor-level seating possible?
6. What equation can you write to show the minimum amount of raked
seating area and floor-level seating area possible, within the total
venue capacity of 220 people?
Graph Work
7. Draw the three constraints on a graph. Choose appropriate scales to
use.
8. Find the points on the graph which represent the different
combinations of raked seating and floor-level seating which you
worked out earlier. (Remember, your values do not take into
consideration the fact that the total venue capacity is 220 people.)
This area (i.e. where all of the points you have found are positioned) is
called the feasible region. This region contains all of the possible
solutions to the problem, and one of them will be the best. The best
solution is called the optimum solution.
The objective is the thing you are aiming for in the problem. In this case,
your objective is to find the combination that will make the greatest profit.
9. Which point on the graph represents the combination that has the
greatest profit? (Recall the constraints we found earlier and
remember that we can only have integer values.)
Modelling the Problem in Excel
This problem can be modelled in Excel and we can use this to help answer
several what-if questions, if we wanted to change the problem slightly.
Excel has a what-if analysis tool called Solver that will find the optimal
value by changing values in different cells.
What is the best solution for the designers if:
10.

The venue has a maximum capacity of 200 people.

(Use the sheet in your Excel workbook entitled copy of model 1 to

show this.)
11.
For every row of raked seating, there has to be two rows of
floor-level seating.
(Use the sheet in your Excel workbook entitled copy of model 2 to
show this.)
Relation to Operational Research (OR)
Operational Research involves applying appropriate, and often
advanced, analytical methods to real life problems in order to help make
better decisions. This is a standard OR problem called linear
programming. It is called this because all the constraints are straight
lines.
Linear Programming Case Study
Here is an article from Chron (a small business website) which highlights
one use of linear programming in business.

How Do Restaurants Use Linear Programming

for Menu Planning?
by Diane Perez, Demand Media

Restaurants use linear programming for menu planning. It uses basic

algebra to optimize meal production and thereby increase restaurant
profits. Linear algebra reflects a direct relationship between an increase or
decrease in food resources, and an increase or decrease in meal
production. For example, if the kitchen has only half its needed supply of
cream base, then it can only prepare half its normal amount of cream
soups. Additionally, management can determine the cost of preparing
different menu items to decide how many of each menu item to prepare
for optimal profit.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/restaurants-use-linear-programming-menu-planning37132.html

Can you think of any more examples where linear programming is used in
real life?

Evaluation

1) What did you feel confident doing during this lesson?

2) What do you think you need to improve on?
3) How do you think you could use linear programming in the future?
4) What is the benefit of linear programming?