George B. Dantzig

A basic text in linear programming, the solution of systems of linear equalities. The subjects covered include the concepts, origins and formulations of linear programs, and the simplex method of solution as applied to the price concept, matrix games, and transportation problems.

The paper is concerned with the optimum routing of a fleet of gasoline delivery trucks between a bulk terminal and a large number of service stations supplied by the terminal. The shortest routes between any two points in the system are given and a demand for one or several products is specified for a number of stations within the distribution system. It is desired to find a way to assign stations to trucks in such a manner that station demands are satisfied and total mileage covered by the fleet is a minimum A procedure based on a linear programming formulation is given for obtaining a near optimal solution. The calculations may be readily performed by hand or by an automatic digital computing machine. No practical applications of the method have been made as yet. A number of trial problems have been calculated, however.

A technique is presented for the decomposition of a linear program that permits the problem to be solved by alternate solutions of linear sub-programs representing its several parts and a coordinating program that is obtained from the parts by linear transformations. The coordinating program generates at each cycle new objective forms for each part, and each part generates in turn (from its optimal basic feasible solutions) new activities (columns) for the interconnecting program. Viewed as an instance of a “generalized programming problem” whose columns are drawn freely from given convex sets, such a problem can be studied by an appropriate generalization of the duality theorem for linear programming, which permits a sharp distinction to be made between those constraints that pertain only to a part of the problem and those that connect its parts. This leads to a generalization of the Simplex Algorithm, for which the decomposition procedure becomes a special case. Besides holding promise for the efficient computation of large-scale systems, the principle yields a certain rationale for the “decentralized decision process” in the theory of the firm. Formally the prices generated by the coordinating program cause the manager of each part to look for a “pure” sub-program analogue of pure strategy in game theory, which he proposes to the coordinator as best he can do. The coordinator finds the optimum “mix” of pure sub-programs (using new proposals and earlier ones) consistent with over-all demands and supply, and thereby generates new prices that again generates new proposals by each of the parts, etc. The iterative process is finite.

It is shown that a certain tour of 49 cities, one in each of the 48 states and Washington, D.C., has the shortest road distance. Operations Research, ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.