The Number of Nodes in Solution field sets the maximum number of decision nodes passed into the Integer Solver. This field affects the analysis as follows:
- The system runs a linear programming solution (LPS) iteratively. It uses this type of solution because it is fast.
- For defect elements in the LPS result whose "portion to include [remedy]" into the optimal result is close to 0 or 1, the system rejects or includes these defect elements entirely in the solution.
- The system repeats steps 1 and 2 on the reduced set of defect elements until there are only N nodes (defect elements) left in the undetermined state (that is neither accepted [remedied] or rejected [not remedied]).
- For these remaining nodes (defect elements), run the integer program (where the 0/1 solutions from LPS are hard-wired as inputs into the integer program).
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| Note: The objective of linear programming is to pick the defect element to remedy that will optimize the objective function, while the objective of integer programming is to pick/reject each defect element to remedy in its entirety. |