UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, JAMAICA

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
DECISION SCIENCE
TUTORIAL WORKSHEET
DECISION ANALYSIS
Problem # 1
T. Bone Puckett, has acquired a textile company on Marcus Garvey Drive and is
considering the capacity of the plant to satisfy future orders. Given the following
conditional value table, determine the appropriate decision under uncertainty – i.e., the
decision maker does not know the probability of the outcomes – using
a) Maximax
b) Maximin
c) Laplace (Equally Likely)
d) Minimax Regret
________________________________________________________________________
States of Nature
________________________________________
Very Favorable Average Unfavorable
Alternatives Market Market Market
Build new plant $350,000 $240,000 -$300,000
Subcontract $180,000 $ 90,000 -$ 20,000
Overtime $110,000 $ 60,000 -$ 10,000
Do nothing $ 0 $ 0 $ 0

Problem #2
A Farmer in St. Elizabeth must decide which crop to plant next year on his land: corn,
peanuts, or red peas. The return from each crop will be determined by whether a new
trade bill with CARICOM is passed in Parliament. The profit the farmer will realize from
each crop, given the two possible results on the trade bill is shown in the following
payoff table:
___________________________________________________
Trade Bill
_____________________________________
Crop Pass Fail
____________________________________________________
Corn $35,000 $ 8,000
Peanuts 18,000 12,000
Red Peas 22,000 20,000
___________________________________________________
Determine the best crop to plant, using the following information:
a) Maximax

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 b) Maximin
c) Minimax Regret
d) Equal likelihood

Problem # 3.
A local real estate investor in Montego Bay is considering three alternative investments:
a guest house, a restaurant, or a night club. Profits from the guest house or restaurant
will be affected by the availability of gasoline and the number of tourists; profits from
the night club will be relatively stable under any conditions. The following table shows
the profit or loss that could result from each investment:

Gasoline Availability
_______________________________________________________

Investment Shortage Stable Supply Surplus

Guest house -$8,000 $15,000 $20,000
Restaurant 2,000 8,000 6,000
Night Club 6,000 6,000 5,000

Determine the best investment, using the following decision criteria.

a) Maximax
b) Maximin
c) Minimax Regret
d) Equally Likely

Problem # 4
Maria Rowe is considering the possibility of opening a small dress shop on Fairbanks
Avenue, a few blocks from the university. She has located a good mall that attracts
students. Her options are to open a small shop, a medium-sized shop, or no shop at all.
The market for a dress shop can be good, average, or bad. The probabilities for these
three possibilities are 0.2 for a good market, 0.5 for an average market, and 0.3 for a
bad market. The net profit or loss for the medium-sized and small shops for the various
market conditions are given in the table below. Building no shop at all yields no loss and
no gain. What do you recommend?

ALTERNATIVE GOOD MARKET ($) AVERAGE MARKET BAD MARKET ($)

($)
Small Shop 75,000 25,000 - 40,000
Medium-sized Shop 100,000 35,000 - 60,000
No Shop 0 0 0

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Problem # 5

The Big Traders Company is going to introduce one of three new

products: a widget, a hummer, or a nimnot. The market
conditions (favourble, stable, or unfavourable) will determine
the profit or loss the company realizes, as shown in the
following payoff table:

_____________________________________________
______
Market Conditions

________________________________________
Favorable Stable
Unfavorable
Product .2 .7 .1

_____________________________________________
_______
Widget $120,000 $70,000 -
$30,000
Hummer 60,000 40,000
20,000
Nimnot 35,000 30,000
30,000

_____________________________________________
_______

a) Compute the expected value for each decision and select

the best one.
b) Determine how much the firm would be willing to pay to
a market research firm to gain better information about
future conditions.

Problem # 6

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Microcomp is a U.S. based manufacturer of personal computers. It is
planning to build a new manufacturing and distribution facility in eith
South Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, or Mexico. It will take
approximately 5 years to build the necessary infrastructure (roads,
etc.,), construct the new facility, and put it into operation. The
eventual cost of the facility will differ between countries and will even
vary with countries depending on the financial, labor, and political
climate, including monetary exchange rates. The company has
estimated the facility cost (in $1,000,000s) in each country under
three different future economic and political climates, as follows:

Economic/Political Climate

________________________________
Country Decline Same Improve
South Korea 21.7 19.1 15.2
China 19.0 18.5 17.6
Taiwan 19.2 17.1 14.9
Philippines 22.5 16.8 13.8
Mexico 25.0 21.2 12.5

A global economist hired by Microcomp, estimates that the

probability that the economic and political climate overseas and
in Mexico will decline during the next 5 years is 0.4, the
probability that it will remain approximately the same is 0.50,
and the probability that it will improve is 0.10.

Determine:
a) The best country to construct the new facility in and
b) The expected value of perfect information

Problem #7

a) Use the Expected Money Value approach to determine

the optimal decision based on the information below.
STATE OF NATURE
Decision S1 S1 S3
Alternative
d1 25 19 -2.0
d2 10 16 -8.5

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 The decision maker has obtained the probability
assessments: P( S1 ) = 0.65, P( S2 ) = 0.15 and P( S3 ) =
0.20.

b) Use the data above to calculate the Expected Value of

Perfect Information.

Problem #8

Consider the pay-off table below. Assume that the

following probabilities are specified for the states of nature.
P(1) = 0.1 ; P(2) = 0.4; and P(3) = 0.3 .

← STATE OF NATURE ➔
DECISION S1 S2 S3
S4
d1 35 21 25 12
d2 27 25 20 18
D3 22 26 21 28
d4 20 25 28 33

a. Find the decision that maximizes the expected net

dollar return.
b. Find the decision that minimizes the expected net
dollar return.
c. Use the data above to calculate the Expected Value
of Perfect Information.

EXCEL PROBLEMS

1. Abc Inc. must make a decision on its current capacity for next year. Estimated
profits (in $000’s) based on next year’s demand are shown in the table below.

Next Year’s Demand

Alternative Low High

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 Expand $100 $200
Subcontract $50 $120
Do Nothing $40 $50

a. Which alternative should be chosen based on the maximax criterion?

b. Which alternative should be chosen based on the maximin criterion?
c. Which alternative should be chosen based on the Laplace criterion?
d. Which alternative should be chosen based on the minimax regret criterion

2. Refer to problem 1. Assume ABC Inc. has hired a marketing research firm that
provided additional information regarding next year’s demand. Suppose that the
probabilities of low and high demand are assessed as follows: P(Low) = 0.4 and
P(High) = 0.6.

a. Which alternative should be chosen using the expected monetary value (EMV)
criterion?
b. What is the expected value under certainty?
c. What is the expected value under perfect information (EVPI)?

3. A bakery must decide how many apple-pies to prepare for the upcoming
weekend. The bakery has the option to make 50, 100 or 150 apple-pies.
Assume that the demand for the pies can be 50, 100, or 150. Each pie costs $5
to make and sells for $7. Unsold pies are donated to a nearby charity centre.
Assume that there is no opportunity cost for the lost sales.

a. Which alternative should be chosen based on the maximax criterion?

b. Which alternative should be chosen based on the maximin criterion?
c. Which alternative should be chosen based on the Laplace criterion?
d. Which alternative should be chosed based on the minimax regret criterion?

4. Assume that the bakery (problem 3 above) has obtained the following
probability information regarding the demand for pies: P(50) = 0.3, P(100) = 0.5,
and P(150) = 0.2
a. Which alternative should be chosen using the expected monetary value
(EMV) criterion?
b. What is the expected value under certainty?
c. What is the expected value under perfect information (EVPI)?

5. AAA auto supply store sells rough terrain tires which are ordered every Friday to
meet next week’s demand. The sales price for the most popular size is $50 per
tire and it costs for AAA is $$35. If too many tires are ordered AAA incurs an

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 inventory carrying cost of $2 per tire. If AAA is out of stock, it forgoes the profits
from missed sales. AAA has the option to order 100, 150, or 200 tires to meet
next week’s demand which can be either 100, 150, or 200 tires.

a. Which alternative should be chosen based on the maximax criterion?

b. Which alternative should be chosen based on the maximin criterion?
c. Which alternative should be chosen based on the Laplace criterio?
d. Which alternative should be chosen based on the minimax criterion?
e. Based on its historical demand distribution, assume that AAA Inc has determined
the following probability information: P(100) = 0.4 P(150) = 0.3, and P(200) = 0.3
i. Which alternative should be chosen using the expected monetary value
(EMV) criterion?
ii. What is the expected value under certainty?
iii. What is the expected value under perfect information (EVPI)?

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