ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING MULTICRITERION LINEAR PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS WITH EXAMPLES

The purpose of this paper is to develop a useful technique for solving linear programs involving more than one objective function. Motivation for solving multicriterion linear programs is given along with the inherent difficulty associated with obtaining a satisfactory solution set. By applying a linear programming approach for the solution of two person - zero sum games with mixed strategies, it is shown that a linear optimization problem with multiple objective functions can be formulated in this fashion in order to obtain a solution set satisfying all the requirements for an efficient solution of the problem. The solution method is then refined to take into account disparities between the magnitude of the values generated by each of the objective functions and solution preferences as determined by a decision-maker. A summary of the technique is then given along with several examples in order to demonstrate its applicability.