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Multiple Objectives
While typical optimization models have a single objective function, real-world optimization problems often have multiple, competing objectives. For example, in a production planning model, you may want to both maximize profits and minimize late orders, or in a workforce scheduling application, you may want to minimize the number of shifts that are short-staffed while also respecting worker's shift preferences.
The main challenge you face when working with multiple, competing objectives is deciding how to manage the trade-offs between them. Gurobi provides tools that simplify the task: Gurobi allows you to blend multiple objectives, to treat them hierarchically, or to combine the two approaches. In a blended approach, you optimize a weighted combination of the individual objectives. In a hierarchical or lexicographic approach, you set a priority for each objective, and optimize in priority order. When optimizing for one objective, you only consider solutions that would not degrade the objective values of higher-priority objectives. Gurobi allows you to enter and manage your objectives, to provide weights for a blended approach, and to set priorities for a hierarchical approach.
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