An Exploration of Various Goal Programming Formulations — with Application to Advertising Media Scheduling

Abstract

This article examines various goal programming formulations, including the well-known MINSUM and MINMAX models, and their extensions to include explicit recognition of "soft" constraints. The differences in the nature of the solution sets and their sensitivity are illustrated using a real-life advertising media scheduling problem involving 63 media options. It is concluded that MINMAX models may often be more useful in gaining insight into the nature of the problem's solution, and that both MINSUM and MINMAX models may be considerably enriched through the use of soft constraints.