QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES

45 contact hours
Prerequisite: None

1.0 COURSE PURPOSE

To equip and develop the student knowledge and skills in quantitative techniques necessary for
use in business operations and decision making

2.0 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this course, the learner shall be able to:
i) Apply decision theory techniques in decision making process
ii) Apply network analysis techniques in project planning
iii) Apply queuing models in minimization of service and waiting costs
iv) Apply optimization models in resource allocation
v) Apply correlation and regression analysis in business operations

3.0 COURSE DESCRIPTION

Matrix algebra; introduction to matrices, types of matrices, matrix operations, use of matrices
in modeling operations, application of matrices to input-output analysis and Markov analysis.
Differential and integral Calculus; minimization and maximization. Cost estimation and
Forecasting; an overview of the methods of cost estimation and prediction, simple regression
and correlation analysis. Time series models, additive and multiplicative models and their
applications. Components of time series. Methods of fitting trend, free hand, semi averages,
moving averages, least square method. Decision theory; decision making process. Decision
making environment, certainty, risk and uncertainty. Decision making under uncertainty,
maxmin, minimax, maxmax, laplace, hurwicz decision rules. Decision making under risk,
expected monetary value and expected opportunity loss. Multistage decision making, decision
trees. Game theory, two-persons zero sum games, mixed strategies, non zero games, competitive
bidding, the winners course. Limitation of the decision making environment. Limitation of
expected monetary value criteria. Probability distributions; Definitions. Binomial distributions,
characteristics and uses. Mean and standard deviation of binomial distribution. Poisson
distribution , characteristics and uses. Normal distribution, characteristics and uses. Network
Planning and Analysis; Introduction and terminology. Activity sequencing and network
diagrams, Critical Path Analysis (CPA). Time analysis and floats. Crashing of activities. Project
Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT). Cost scheduling and resource scheduling.
Limitations and advantages of CPA and PERT. Queuing; Introduction to queuing system.
Characteristics and objectives of queuing system. Queuing costs, demand and supply factors.
Channels and stages of service. Single server queuing system. Linear Programming;
Definitions of decision variables, objective function and constraints. Requirement for LP-
models. Formulation and solution of LP-problems, graphical and simplex methods. Application
of linear programming in transport and assignment problems.

4.0 TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Lectures, case studies, videos, group discussions, presentations.

5.0 INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Computers/internet, Overhead projector and LCD, whiteboard, flip charts.

6.0 COURSE ASSESSMENT

The course shall be assessed as follows
Written CATs 20%
Assignment 20 %
Final Examination 60 %
Total 100%

7.0 COURSE TEXTBOOKS

i) Kothari, C. R. Quantitative Techniques (3rd edition), 2013, New Delhi, India, Vikas
publishing house (PVT) Ltd, ISBN: 9789325968967.
ii) Lucey, T. Quantitative Techniques (6th edition), 2002, Hampshire, England, Cengage
Learning, ISBN: 9781844801060.
iii) Saleemi, N. A. Quantitative Techniques Simplified, 2010, Nairobi, Kenya, Saleemi
Puplications Ltd, ISBN:9966280170
8.0 REFERENCE TEXTBOOKS
i) Buglear, J. Quantitative methods for business and management, 2012, Harlow, England,
Pearson Education Ltd, ISBN: 9780273736288
ii) Curwin, J. Quantitative methods for business decisions (7th edition), 2013, Hampshire,
England, Cengage Learning, ISBN: 9781408060193.
iii) Waters, D. Quantitative methods for business (5th edition), 2011, Harlow, England,
Pearson Education Ltd, ISBN: 9780273739470.

9.0 COURSE JOURNALS

i) International Journal of Science and Mathematics, Springer, ISSN: 1571-0068,
ii) Journal of mathematical and computational science, Science and knowledge, ISSN: 1927-
5307
iii) Advances in Computational Mathematics ISSN 1019-7168

10.0 REFERENCE JOURNALS

i) Journal of Mathematical Sciences, Springer- University of Tokyo, ISSN: 1340-5705
ii) Advances in Mathematics, Elsevier, ISSN: 0001-8708
iii) Cluster computing ISSN 1386-7857