MSc Applied Statistics with Operational Research

Cohort: MASOR/16B/PT

Resit Examinations for 2017 / 2018 – Semester 1

MODULE: METHODS FOR OPERATIONAL RESEARCH

MODULE CODE: MATH 5321C

Duration: 3 Hours

Instructions to Candidates:

1. Answer ALL questions.

2. Questions may be answered in any order but your answers must show
the question number clearly.
3. Always start a new question on a fresh page.
4. All questions carry equal marks.
5. Total marks 100.

This question paper contains 4 questions and 4 pages.

Methods for Operational Research MATH 5321C Page 1 of 4

 Answer ALL Questions

Question 1: (25 Marks)

Yummy produces a drink by combining juice and soda. Each litre of juice contains 6 mg of
vitamin and 20 g of sugar. Each litre of soda contains 3 mg of vitamin and 40 g of sugar. A
litre of juice and soda costs $1.60 and $1 respectively. Yummy has decided to sell the drink in
containers of 30 L that must contain at least 100 mg of vitamin and at most 1 kg of sugar.

(i) Use the simplex method to find how can Yummy’s requirements be met at minimum cost.

(ii) Write down the MATLAB commands for solving the above problem using linprog.

(iii) Formulate the dual of the LP such that all variables are non-negative.

(iv) Determine the new cost if each container must have at least 103 mg of vitamin and at
most 990 g of sugar.

(17 + 3 + 3 + 2 marks)

Question 2: (25 Marks)

(a) Consider the non-negative integers x and y, where x ≤ y + 2 and 2x + 8y ≤ 19. Use the
branch and bound method to maximise z = 3.5x + 9y.

(13 marks)

(b) The activities associated with a certain project are given below

Activity A B C D E F G H I J
Predecessor(s) – – – A&B D E C F&G – I&H
Duration 2 4 4 3 3 2 3 2 6 3

(i) Construct the associated project network, and determine the critical activities.
(ii) Determine the total and free floats for the network, and identify the red-flagged
activities.

(9 + 3 marks)

Methods for Operational Research MATH 5321C Page 2 of 4

Question 3: (25 Marks)
(a) The demand for a certain product over the next four periods may be filled from regular
production and subcontracting. The table below provides the production capacities and
demand for the four periods in terms of hundred units.

Capacity
Period Demand Regular production Subcontracting
1 11 9 9
2 15 8 7
3 12 7 9
4 18 8 7

Unit production cost during the first period is $7 for regular production and $11 for
subcontracting. Unit production cost during the remaining periods is $6 for regular
production and $9 for subcontracting. The unit holding cost per period is $2. Formulate
a LP to find the optimal inventory policy.

(10 marks)

(b) A state is taking bids on four projects that are due to start simultaneously. Three firms
have placed bids (in thousand dollars) on the projects as follows

Projects
Company 1 2 3 4
X 35 29 31 39
Y 37 − 33 40
Z 36 34 34 −

Firm X can do only one job. Firms Y and Z can do up to two jobs. Use the Hungarian
method to find an allocation scheme of the projects so that the total cost is minimised,
and determine the total cost.

(9 marks)

(c) Consider a M/M/1 queueing system where the successive inter-arrival times and service
times have mean 20 and 15 minutes respectively.

(i) Find the rate of server utilization and the average time a customer spends waiting
in the queue.
(ii) What should be the service rate if the average waiting time must not exceed half an
hour?

(3 + 3 marks)

Methods for Operational Research MATH 5321C Page 3 of 4

Question 4: (25 Marks)
(a) Yummy manufactures a certain product and ships them to the markets M1 and M2 from
the ports P1 and P2 . The products can be either shipped directly to the markets or
Yummy can use a transshipment point T .
The ports P1 and P2 supply 250 and 200 units respectively. The markets M1 and M2
demand 230 and 180 units respectively. The shipment cost from P1 to M1 is 22, from P1
to M2 it is 19, from P2 to M1 it is 24, and from P2 to M2 it is 27. The shipping costs
from P1 and P2 to T are 12 and 9 respectively. The shipping costs from T to M1 and M2
are 16 and 12, respectively.
Given that only 140 products can be transshipped through T , determine how Yummy
can minimise its shipping costs while meeting the market demands.

(10 marks)

(b) A company is developing a replacement policy for one of its equipment for a 5-year
planning horizon. At the start of each year, a decision is made as to whether the equipment
should be kept in operation or replaced. The equipment must be in service a minimum
of 1 year and a maximum of 3 years. The following table provides the replacement cost
as a function of the year the equipment is acquired and the number of years in operation.

Replacement cost
Year acquired 1 2 3
1 4000 6000 8000
2 4100 6200 8300
3 4300 6200 8300
4 4700 6200 8700
5 5100 6300 9000

(i) Use Dijkstra’s algorithm to determine the optimal replacement policy of the equip-
ment.
(ii) Write a GNU MathProg code for solving the above problem.

(7 + 8 marks)

***END OF QUESTION PAPER***

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