Use Cases

This page contains a collection of use cases that illustrates some potential applications of prescriptive analytics and how it can add more intelligence power to operations across industries.

Companies’ names and all the data shared with any of these use cases are fictitious. However, all the use cases are inspired by real-world applications.

The use cases are sorted in an increasing level of complexity. So the first use cases are fairly simple whereas the ones on the bottom are more sophisticated and require more expertise to solve with analytics.

Additional notes for:

  • We are always happy to assist anyone wanting to learn and make contributions.

    So, if you feel compelled to solve any of these use cases but don’t have the required skills yet, reach out to us or check out the Mip Go and the Mip Optimization programs.

  • One of Mip Wise’s main goals is to democratize technologies that can empower more people to support decision-making in operations with advanced analytics.

    If you teach prescriptive analytics at an undergraduate or graduate program, you can also be part of this movement.

    We have many resources that we can share with you at no cost. It includes other use cases not listed on this page, complete solutions to all use cases, and even slides.

    If you’re interested, just reach out to us.

  • We understand that your business problems might be way more complex than any of these use cases—the examples on this webpage are fairly simplified for didactic reasons.

    However, if you can relate your business problem to any of these use cases, you can leverage our resources to expand any of these examples and even build out solutions from scratch if that’s the best approach.

  • PinkPig

    PinkPig is a local pig farm. Among the challenges they face in raising healthy animals is composing a nutritious diet as cheaply as possible. A good pig diet must contain a sufficient amount of…

    Keywords: Diet Problem, Linear Programming.

    See the use case

  • Freshly

    Freshly is a local business that sells bottled fresh coconut water and fresh orange juice to local groceries on a daily basis. Although it takes only about 54 seconds to process one coconut and…

    Keywords: Production Planning, Resources Capacities.

    See the use case

  • Petroller

    Petroller owns a petroleum refinery that produces fuel (such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) from crude oil. They can source crude oil from multiple oil production plants, but it can…

    Keywords: Blending problem, Linear Programming, Commodity Flow Problem.

    See the use case

  • MarketUp

    Silly Bean, a big retail company, reached out to MarketUp Analytics because they want to optimally allocate an annual budget of 1 million dollars into four marketing channels: Print, TV, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and…

    Keywords: Resource Allocation, Linear Programming.

    See the use case

  • Black Blend

    Black Blend is a Brazilian company that buys raw coffee grains, roasts, and distributes them to wholesalers. The company buys raw grains from three suppliers, Mineiro, Goiano, and…

    Keywords: Sourcing Optimization, Production Planning, Sensitivity Analysis.

    See the use case

  • Pastesian

    Pastesian is a family-owned pasta factory that is currently planning the production of lasagnas for the next 4 months. Lasagnas are prepared and immediately frozen for distribution. They have some freezers in the factory where…

    Keywords: Production Planning, Inventory Planning, Linear Programming.

    See the use case

  • SoyKing

    SoyKing is a major soybean producer in Brazil. The company currently has two distribution centers (DC) with demand for many tons of soybean and three farms with tons of soybean ready to be shipped...

    Keywords: Sourcing Optimization, Linear Programming.

    See the use case

  • Voltwise

    Voltwise is an independent contractor company that provides services around the expansion and maintenance of electric grids in Colombia. Every month, Voltwise has the opportunity to…

    Keywords: Job Scheduling, Linear Programming.

    See the use case

  • Ukulelor

    Ted, is running a business in the music industry, a ukulele factory. His brand, Ukulelor, is becoming a big success because of the excellent quality of the ukuleles that he produces and …

    Keywords: Order Fulfillment, Integer Programming

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  • Frisbee Square

    Frisbee Square is a factory that makes the world's best frisbees. Today, they are planning production for the first quarter of next year, Jan-Mar, when they are going to dedicate the whole facility to…

    Keywords: Production Planning, Inventory Planning, Linear Programming.

    See the use case

  • Xbook

    Xbook is a company that buys old books and sells them to enthusiastic collectors in the USA. Transactions typically happen on the internet but physical copies of the books must be delivered to local book stores from where…

    Keywords: Network Design, Linear Programming.

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  • GrabBro

    GrabBro is a startup in the delivery industry. They realized that when people arrive in a new city and are staying at a hotel, one of the first things they need to do (but don't wish) is to buy groceries such as…

    Keywords: Vehicle Routing, Integer Programming.

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  • Woodler

    Woodler is a local company that prepares and distributes wood to be used in building and carpentry. They have one large distribution center (DC) and many stores. Stores are located in the city and don't have much storage capacity. So…

    Keywords: Vehicle Routing, Integer Programming.

    See the use case

  • ProJeans

    ProJeans manufactures fashion jeans and commercializes them in the USA. To offer more competitive prices, the company orders some of its fashion clothes from third parties manufacturers located in Bangladesh, Egypt, and…

    Keywords: Sourcing Optimization, Piecewise-linear Function, MOQ, Integer Programming.

    See the use case