SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Lucban, Quezon
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS:
AIDING ALLIES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report provides an analysis on the case study titled “Aiding Allies” and
it evaluate the constraints and current requirements on the said cities. Methods of
analysis used in the case analysis includes network optimization models such as Network
model in order to show all the nodes, arcs, flow, and paths of the locations. The shortest
path method involves minimizing the distance travelled from the origin to destination, the
maximum flow method provides techniques to utilize the limited requirements to each
given cities and the minimum spanning tree method helps to connect all points for the
communication line as minimum as possible and to minimize the total cost of
reestablishing communication between the given cities in the case study. All calculations
can be found in the appendices. Results of data analyzed shows that the shortest path
from US to Saint Petersburg is BOSTON-LONDON-ST. PETERSBURG with total travel
time of 12.71 hours. The shortest path from US to Moscow is BOSTON-LONDON-
MOSCOW with a total travel time of 13.21 hours. The shortest path from US to Rostov is
BOSTON-BERLIN-ROSTOV with a total travel time of 13.95 hours and the network
diagram can be found also in the appendices. The Russian city’s military requirements at
minimum cost is satisfied. The total cost of operation is equals to $412,866,666. The
entire supply for the Saint Petersburg is supplies from Jacksonville via London. The entire
supply for Moscow is supplied from Boston via Hamburg. The 240,000 tons demanded
by Rostov are divided as follows, 60 are shipped from Boston via Istanbul, 150 are
shipped from Jacksonville via Istanbul, and 30 are shipped from Jacksonville via London.
The paths can be found in the appendices. The flow of from US to Russian cities that the
President wants to maximize is also solved and the amount or the total supply for Saint
Petersburg, Moscow, and Rostov is equals to 225,000 tons, 104,800 tons, 192,400 tons
respectively. Lastly the cost to reestablish the Communication lines is $770,000.
Introduction:
The siege starts the following way in a cold night in October in Russia.
Commander Votachev and his two years dream of work and training revolutionaries east
of the Ural Mountains has proved successful; his troops now occupy seven strategically
important cities in the Russian Federation: Kazan, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Samara,
Saratov, and Orenburg. His siege is not yet over, however. He looks to the west. Given
the political and economic confusion in the Russian Federation at this time, he knows that
his troops will be able to conquer Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Rostov shortly. Across
the Pacific Ocean, a meeting of the top security and foreign policy advisers of the United
States is in progress at the White House. The President has recently been briefed about
the communist revolution masterminded by Commander Votachev and is determining a
plan of action. The President reflects upon a similar October long ago in 1917, and he
fears the possibility of a new age of radical Communist rule accompanied by chaos,
bloodshed, escalating tensions, and possibly nuclear war. He therefore decides that the
United States needs to respond and to respond quickly. Moscow has requested
assistance from the United States military, and the President plans to send troops and
supplies immediately. The President turns to General Lankletter and asks him to describe
the preparations being taken in the United States to send the necessary troops and
supplies to the Russian Federation.
General Lankletter informs the President that along with troops, weapons,
ammunition, fuel, and supplies, aircraft, ships, and vehicles are being assembled at two
port cities with airfields: Boston and Jacksonville. The aircraft and ships will transfer all
troops and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean to the Eurasian continent. The general hands
the President a list of the types of aircraft, ships, and vehicles being assembled along
with a description of each type.
All aircraft, ships, and vehicles can carry both troops and cargo. Once an aircraft or ship
arrives in Europe, it stays there to support the armed forces.
The President then turns to Tabitha Neal, who has been negotiating with the
NATO countries for the last several hours to use their ports and airfields as stops to refuel
and resupply before heading to the Russian Federation. She informs the President that
the following ports and airfields in the NATO countries will be made available to the United
States military.
The President stands and walks to the map of the world projected on a large
screen in the middle of the room. He maps the progress of troops and cargo from the
United States to three strategic cities in the Russian Federation that have not yet been
seized by Commander Votachev. The three cities are Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and
Rostov. He explains that the troops and cargo will be used both to defend the Russian
cities and to launch a counterattack against Votachev to recapture the cities he currently
occupies.
The President also explains that all Starlifters and transports leave Boston or
Jacksonville. All transports that have traveled across the Atlantic must dock at one of the
NATO ports to unload. Palletized load system trucks brought over in the transports will
then carry all troops and materials unloaded from the ships at the NATO ports to the three
strategic Russian cities not yet seized by Votachev. All Starlifters that have traveled
across the Atlantic must land at one of the NATO airfields for refueling. The planes will
then carry all troops and cargo from the NATO airfields to the three Russian cities.
Key Issues
The United States decided to help the Russian Federation from the war started
and leaded by Commander Votachev. The president is determining a plan of action to
help these cities. A network of possible routes is needed to foresee which path will use to
transport troops and supplies to reach the Russian Federation from the United States.
Moscow and Washington do not know when Commander Votachev will launch
his next attack. The president is so dire to help that the cost is no object – as many
Starlifters, transports and trucks as are necessary will be used to transfer troops to reach
each three strategic Russian cities as quickly as possible. The President encounters one
problem, he must sell the military deployment to Congress because they will not authorize
significant spending for another country’s war. While selling this strategy to the congress
they need to satisfy each Russian city’s military requirements at minimum cost.
They learn that several additional restrictions exist which cannot be
immediately eliminated, because of airfield congestion and unalterable flight schedules,
only a limited number of planes may be sent between any two cities. Because some
countries fear that citizens will become alarmed if too many military trucks travel the public
highways, they give a limited number of trucks able to travel between certain ports and
Russian cities. The President realizes that because of all the restrictions he will not be
able to satisfy all the reinforcement requirements, so he decided to disregard cost issue
and instead to maximize the total amount of cargo to the Strategic Russian cities.
Commander Votachev was imprisoned, and the next step became rebuilding
the seven cities razed by his armies. After the war, the President’s top priority is to help
Russian government to reestablish communications between the seven Russian cities
and Moscow at minimum cost.
Decision Criteria
A network of strategy that shows possible routes connecting Boston and
Jacksonville to Moscow, Rostov, and St. Petersburg, analyzing and verifying the
distances in kilometers of their NATO Airfields and ports all around the United States,
Europe and Russia. Considering this data, finding the fastest and shortest path to get to
the three strategic Russian cities considering the length of route in kilometers and speed
per mile.
Minimizing transportation cost while satisfying each strategic cities in the Russian
Federation. With the additional constraints of the NATO cities that cannot be eliminated,
the transportation network should maximize the total amount of cargo that reaches the
Russian Federation.
The price of installing communication lines between any two Russian cities varies
given the cost of shipping wire to the area, the level of destruction in the area, and the
roughness of the terrain will be considering minimizing the cost of reestablishing
communication lines.
Assumptions
There are three types of transportation namely Aircraft (C-141 Starlifter), Ship
(Transport), and Vehicle (Palletized Load System Truck) that will transport troops and
supplies with the capacity of 150 tons on Aircraft, 240 tons on Ship, and 16000 kilograms
on Vehicle using the network model you will find possible route to reach the strategic
cities in the Russian Federation from the United States. All aircraft, ships, and vehicles
can carry both troops and cargo. Once an aircraft or ship arrives in Europe, it stays there
to support the armed forces. Using the Shortest path Method will be a great help to find
the fastest way to quickly move troops from United States to Rostov, Moscow and St.
Petersburg. No limitations exist on the number of troops and amount of cargo that can be
transferred between any cities.
Length of route in Speed in
From To
km mi/hr
Boston Berlin 7,250 400
Boston Hamburg 8,250 35
Boston Istanbul 8,300 400
Boston London 6,200 400
Boston Rotterdam 6,900 35
Boston Napoli 7,950 35
Jacksonville Berlin 9,200 400
Jacksonville Hamburg 9,800 35
Jacksonville Istanbul 10,100 400
Jacksonville London 7,900 400
Jacksonville Rotterdam 8,900 35
Jacksonville Napoli 9,400 35
Berlin Saint Petersburg 1,280 400
Hamburg Saint Petersburg 1,880 60
Istanbul Saint Petersburg 2,040 400
London Saint Petersburg 1,980 400
Rotterdam Saint Petersburg 2,200 60
Napoli Saint Petersburg 2,970 60
Berlin Moscow 1,600 400
Hamburg Moscow 2,120 60
Istanbul Moscow 1,700 400
London Moscow 2,300 400
Rotterdam Moscow 2,450 60
Napoli Moscow 2,890 60
Berlin Rostov 1,730 400
Hamburg Rostov 2,470 60
Istanbul Rostov 990 400
London Rostov 2,860 400
Rotterdam Rostov 2,760 60
Napoli Rostov 2,800 60
Each Russian city has contacted Washington to communicate the number of
troops and supplies the city needs at a minimum for reinforcement. After analyzing the
requests, General Lankletter has converted the requests from numbers of troops, gallons
of gasoline, etc. to tons of cargo for easier planning. The requirements in St. Petersburg
is 320,000 tons, Moscow is 440,000 and 240,000 in Rostov. Using the Maximum Flow to
find maximum load that will transport military requirements at minimum transportation cost.
Transportation
From To Cost
Type
Boston Berlin 50,000 Starlifter
Boston Hamburg 30,000 Transport
Boston Istanbul 55,000 Starlifter
Boston London 45,000 Starlifter
Boston Rotterdam 30,000 Transport
Boston Napoli 32,000 Transport
Jacksonville Berlin 57,000 Starlifter
Jacksonville Hamburg 48,000 Transport
Jacksonville Istanbul 61,000 Starlifter
Jacksonville London 49,000 Starlifter
Jacksonville Rotterdam 44,000 Transport
Jacksonville Napoli 56,000 Transport
Saint
Berlin 24,000 Starlifter
Petersburg
Saint
Hamburg 3,000 Truck
Petersburg
Saint
Istanbul 28,000 Starlifter
Petersburg
Saint
London 22,000 Starlifter
Petersburg
Saint
Rotterdam 3,000 Truck
Petersburg
Saint
Napoli 5,000 Truck
Petersburg
Berlin Moscow 22,000 Starlifter
Hamburg Moscow 4,000 Truck
Istanbul Moscow 25,000 Starlifter
London Moscow 19,000 Starlifter
Rotterdam Moscow 5,000 Truck
Napoli Moscow 5,000 Truck
Berlin Rostov 23,000 Starlifter
Hamburg Rostov 7,000 Truck
Istanbul Rostov 2,000 Starlifter
London Rostov 4,000 Starlifter
Rotterdam Rostov 8,000 Truck
Napoli Rostov 9,000 Truck
Because some countries fear that citizens will become alarmed if too many military
trucks travel the public highways, they object to many trucks travelling through their
countries. Some countries objected so a limited number of trucks can travel between
certain ports and Russian cities and because of airfield congestion and alterable flights
schedules, only a limited number of planes may be sent between any two cities. Using
the Maximum Flow to find maximum transport load with additional constraints that limits
the number of trucks and aircraft.
From To Maximum
Rotterdam Moscow 600 Trucks
Rotterdam Rostov 750 Trucks
Hamburg Moscow 700 Trucks
Hamburg Rostov 500 Trucks
Napoli Moscow 1500 Trucks
Napoli Rostov 1400 Trucks
From To Maximum
Boston Berlin 300 airplanes
Boston Istanbul 500 airplanes
Boston London 500 airplanes
Jacksonville Berlin 500 airplanes
Jacksonville Istanbul 700 airplanes
Jacksonville London 600 airplanes
Berlin St. Petersburg 500 airplanes
Istanbul St. Petersburg 0 airplanes
London St. Petersburg 1000 airplanes
Berlin Moscow 300 airplanes
Istanbul Moscow 100 airplanes
London Moscow 200 airplanes
Berlin Rostov 0 airplanes
Istanbul Rostov 900 airplanes
London Rostov 100 airplanes
Rebuilding the seven cities communication lines the Minimum Spanning Tree will
greatly help to connect the countries with minimum cost of reestablishing communication
lines.
Between Cost to Reestablish Communication
Lines
St. Petersburg and Kazan 210,000
St. Petersburg and Perm 185,000
St. Petersburg and Ufa 225,000
Moscow and Ufa 310,000
Moscow and Samara 195,000
Moscow and Orenburg 440,000
Moscow and Saratov 140,000
Rostov and Saratov 200,000
Rostov and Orenburg 120,000
Kazan and Perm 150,000
Kazan and Ufa 105,000
Kazan and Samara 95,000
Perm and Yekaterinburg 85,000
Perm and Ufa 125,000
Yekaterinburg and Ufa 100,000
Ufa and Samara 75,000
Ufa and Orenburg 100,000
Saratov and Samara 95,000
Saratov and Orenburg 75,000
Data Analysis
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows all the different routes that troops and supplies may pass through
to reach the Russian Federation. The network design or the network model shows all the
nodes, arcs, flow, and paths of the locations that the troops and supplies may possible to
move through.
The President is only concerned about how to most quickly move troops and
supplies from the United States to the three strategic Russian cities because they don’t
know when Commander Votachev will launch his attack. The best way to accomplish this
goal is to find the fastest route between the United States and the three cities. Therefore,
shortest path method is used to find the shortest path between the US cities and each of
the three Russian cities. The President only cares about the time it takes to get the troops
and supplies to Russia. The arc length between two nodes is assumed to be the time it
takes to travel between respective cities. The distance of the shortest path Boston and
London, London to Saint Petersburg is equals 6,200 km and 1,980 km respectively, the
mode of transportation between this cities is an aircraft “Starlifter” traveling at a speed of
400 miles per hour multiply this to miles per hour then multiply this to 1.609 km per hour
and it is equals to 643.6 km per hour. The total distance of the two destination is 8,180
divide this by 643.6 km per hour and it is equals to 12.709 hours. By using this approach
the time of travel along all arcs in the network is computed. The following shortest path
between each US cities Boston and Jacksonville and each Russian cities St. Petersburg,
Moscow, and Rostov were computed as follows using spreadsheet solver (see
Appendices Table 1-6).
Table 1.0: Boston to St. Petersburg
Total Distance in km 8,180
Total Time 12.70976
Table 1.1: Boston to Moscow
Total Distance in km 8,500
Total Time 13.20696
Table1.2: Boston to Rostov
Total Distance in km 8,980
Total Time 13.95277
Table 1.3: Jacksonville to St. Petersburg
Total Distance in km 9,880
Total Time 15.35115
Table 1.4: Jacksonville to Moscow
Total Distance in km 10,200
Total Time 15.848353
Table 1.5: Jacksonville to Rostov
Total Distance in km 10,760
Total Time 17
Therefore, by comparing all six solutions the shortest path from the US to Saint
Petersburg is Boston-London-Saint Petersburg with a total travel time of 12.71 hours. The
shortest path from the US to Moscow is Boston-London-Moscow with a total travel time
of 13.95 hours. Lastly the US to Rostov shortest path is Boston-Berlin-Rostov.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 2 and 3 depicts all the shortest path mentioned on the above paragraph.
Meanwhile, the Russian city’s requirements must be satisfied by the President at
minimum cost. To satisfy the requirements maximum flow model is used to solve the
problem. The supply nodes are represented by the US cities (Boston and Jacksonville)
with a supply of 500,000 tons. The nodes represented by Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and
Rostov is the demand nodes with a demand of 320,000 tons, 440,000 tons, 240,000 tons
respectively. Furthermore, all the transshipment nodes were represented by European
airfields and ports. Capacity constraints are given, all arcs from the European ports into
Saint Petersburg have zero capacity. The truck routes from European ports into Rostov
have a transportation limit of 40,000 tons. In addition 200 flights from Berlin to Rostov is
required while each aircraft have a capacity of 200 tons resulting in 30,000 tons arc
capacity for both the arcs connecting the nodes London and Berlin to Rostov. The arcs
along the network have a unit cost of $1000 per 1000 tons. To satisfy all the constraints
at a minimum cost. The spreadsheet below shows the solution to the model (see
Appendices Table 7).
Table 2.0: Total Cost of Operation
Total Cost $ 412,866,667
The minimum cost of the operation is equals to $412,866,666. Jacksonville via London is
the path to supply all the requirements for Saint Petersburg. The entire supply for Moscow
is supplied from Boston via Hamburg. The 240,000 tons demanded by Rostov are divided
as follows, 60 are shipped from Boston via Istanbul, 150 are shipped from Jacksonville
via Istanbul, and 30 are shipped from Jacksonville via London.
Figure 4
Figure 4 shows the path where supplies were shipped to Saint Petersburg,
Moscow, and Rostov.
Moreover, the President demanded to maximize the flow from the two US cities to
the three Russian cities. European ports and airfield represents transshipment nodes.
Using the same approach as mentioned on paragraph four, the flow along an arc
represents the capacity measured in tons. The objective is to maximize the flow into three
Russian cities (see Appendices Table 8).
Table 3.0: Maximum Total Cargo
Saint Petersburg -225,000 225,000
Moscow -104,800 104,800
Rostov -192,400 192,400
Maximum
= 522,200
shipment
Table 3.0 shows the maximum shipment in equals to 522,200 tons and it is
allocated for Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Rostov by 225,000 tons, 104,800 tons, and
192,400 tons respectively.
Figure 5
Figure 5 shows the network and the paths used to ship the supplies from US to
the Russian Federation.
Finally, in establishing communication lines at the least cost between Moscow and
all the seven Russian cities minimum spanning tree model is used to this approach. In
this method the path that has the lowest value is chosen until all nodes is connected and
the number of chosen paths is equal to number of nodes less than one. Because Rostov
and St. Petersburg are already connected to Moscow and the cost of connecting them to
other countries is more than the cost of connecting Moscow to other countries. The total
least cost of reestablishing communication line is $770,000.
Figure 6
Figure 6 depicts the network paths of the reestablished communication lines at
least cost.
Recommendations
Operations research (OR) is an analytical method of problem-solving and decision-
making that is useful in the management of organizations. In operations research,
problems are broken down into basic components and then solved in defined steps by
mathematical analysis. (Rouse, 2011) Using these methods of operations research will
greatly help the decision maker of creating strategies. It can be applied to this case in
developing a strategic plan of helping Russian countries. The shortest path method is
used to determine the fastest route of getting to these countries considering only the
distance and speed of the transportation type. The study will be more comprehensive if
additional considerations is used like the weather of the possible departure of planes and
ships. Maximum flow method is used in this study in determining the maximum capacity
of transporting the troops and their requirements to the sink as the Russian countries. It
also used in considering the cost of transport and computed using spreadsheet solver
with the given constraints. The answer from this solver is expected to be the maximum
transport having the minimum cost for having an objective function of Shipment multiplied
by the cost per ton. For this study we can consider the route that will be use if it can
handle the number of trucks that utilize the roads. If any possible short-cut can be used
to minimize the distance. The solutions for this case can be improve when additional
considerations or terms is considered.
Conclusion:
It only took good intelligence and proper method on formulating strategies.
Methods like shortest-path, maximum flow method and the minimal spanning tree are
some of the methods for transportation problems. Figure 1, shows the possible routes
that satisfy the needs of the strategic Russian Countries. The Figure 2 in the appendices
illustrates the shortest path that satisfy the requirement of the strategy that is to reach the
destination as quickly as possible. The shortest paths are: Boston to St. Petersburg
having a total distance of 8,180 km and a total time of 12.7098 hours, Boston to Moscow
having a total distance of 8,500 km and a total time of 13.2070 hours and the Boston to
Rotterburg with 8,980 km and a total time of 13.9528 hours. For the maximum
requirement that can transport from the source—Boston and Jacksonville to the strategic
Russian countries namely St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Rostov. 500,000 tons will be
transported from this source. Boston will transport 440,00 tons to Hamburg, it also
transports 60,000 tons to Istanbul. Jacksonville transports 150,000 tons to Istanbul, it also
transports 350,000 tons to London. Then London will transport to St. Petersburg 320,000
tons and Hamburg to Moscow 440,000. Rostov will receive 240,000 tons from Istanbul
and London. With the Least cost pf $ 412,866.67 the requirements are maximized. With
the additional conditions and disregarding the cost the Figure d illustrates the network
that shows the flow of transporting requirements with regards to its new constraints. The
maximum capacity that can be transported by this strategy is 522,200 tons. And after the
war when the next plan is to reestablish the communication lines the minimum cost that
needed is $770,00. The plan is illustrated in networks. (See appendices).
References:
Hillier & Lieberman, (2005). Introduction to Operation Research, New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill
Weida, Richardson & Vazsonyi, (2000). Operations Analysis Using Microsoft Excel,
California, CA: Pacific Grove
Richard Bronson & Govindasami Naadimuthu, (1997). Operation Research
Schaum’s out lines, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Rouse Margett (https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/operations-research-OR)
