Operations Research I

Homework 3
Due Sunday, March 20, 2022, 11:59 PM

1. (15%) Gotham City Hospital serves cases from four diagnostic-related groups
(DRGs). The profit contribution, diagnostic service use (in hours), bed-day use (in
days), nursing care use (in hours), and drug use (in dollars) are given in the table
below.

DRG Profit Diagnostic Bed-Day Nursing Drugs

Services Use
1 2,000 7 5 30 800
2 1,500 4 2 10 500
3 500 2 1 5 150
4 300 1 0 1 50

The hospital now has available each week 570 hours of diagnostic services, 1,000
bed-days, 50,000 nursing hours, and $50,000 worth of drugs. To meet the
community’s minimum health care demands at least 10 DRG1, 15DRG2, 40
DRG3, and 160 DRG4 cases must be handled each week. Please build the LP to
maximize the profit of Gotham City Hospital. Clearly define decision variables
for full credits. (DO NOT SOLVE.)

2. (15%) McGonagall company needs substantial warehouse space for storing its
goods. Plans now are being made for leasing warehouse storage space over the
next four months. The space required in each of these months is known. However,
since these space requirements are quite different, it may be most economical to
lease only the amount needed each month on a month-by-month basis. On the
other hand, the additional cost for leasing space for additional months is much less
than for the first month, so it may be less expensive to lease the maximum amount
needed for the entire four months. Another option is the intermediate approach of
changing the total amount of space leased (by adding a new lease and/or having an
old lease expire) at least once but not every month. The space requirement and the
leasing periods are as follow:

Required Leasing Period Cost per Sq. Ft.

Month
Space
1 4,000
2 3,500
3 5,000
4 2,000
(Months) Leased
1 $80
2 $145
3 $130
4 $205

The objective is to minimize the total leasing cost for meeting the space
requirements. Formulate a linear programming model for this problem. Clearly
define decision variables for full credits. (DO NOT SOLVE.)

3. (15%) Suppose that the following constraints have been provided for a linear

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 programming model.

(1) (5%) Is the feasible region bounded or unbounded? (draw the graph resulted
from the abovementioned constraints to answer this question)

(2) (5%) If the objective is to maximize , does the model have an

optimal solution? If so, find it. If not, explain why not.

(3) (5%) Repeat part (2) when the objective is to maximize .

4. (20%) Consider the following problem.

(1) (5%) Use the graphical method to solve this problem. Circle all the corner
feasible points (CPF) on the graph. (Draw the graph clearly)
(2) (5%) For each CPF solution, identify the pair of constraint boundary equations
it satisfies.
(3) (5%) For each CPF solution, identify its adjacent CPF solutions.
(4) (5%) Calculate Z for each CPF solution. Use this information to identify an
optimal solution.

5. (15%) Dumbledore corporation manufactures transistors. An important aspect of

the manufacture of transistors is the melting of the element germanium (a major
component of a transistor) in a furnace. Unfortunately, the melting process yields
germanium of highly variable quality.

Two methods can be used to melt germanium: method 1 costs $50 per transistor,
and method 2 costs $70 per transistor. The qualities of germanium obtained by
methods 1 and 2 are shown in the table below.

Grade of Melted Percent yielded by

Germanium melting
Method 1 Method 2
Defective 30 20

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 1 30 20
2 20 25
3 15 20
4 5 15

The corporation can refire melted germanium in an attempt to improve its quality.
It costs $25 to refire the melted germanium for one transistor. The results of the
refiring process are shown in the table below.

Refired Grade Percent Yielded by Refiring

of Germanium Defective Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3
Defective 30 0 0 0
1 25 30 0 0
2 15 30 40 0
3 20 20 30 50
4 10 20 30 50

The corporation has sufficient furnace capacity to melt or refire germanium for at
most 20,000 transistors per month. The monthly demands are for 1,000 grade 4
transistors, 2,000 grade 3 transistors, 3,000 grade 2 transistors, and 3,000 grade 1
transistors. Use LP to minimize the cost of producing the needed transistors.
Clearly define decision variables for full credits. (DO NOT SOLVE.)

6. (20%) All steel manufactured by Steelco must meet the following requirements:
3.2 – 3.5% carbon; 1.8 – 2.5% silicon; 0.9 – 1.2% nickel; tensile strength of at
least 45,000 pounds per square inch (psi). Steelco manufactures steel by
combining two alloys. The cost and properties of each alloy are given in the
following table.

Alloy 1 Alloy 2
Cost per ton ($) $190 $200
Percent silicon 2 2.5
Percent nickel 1 1.5
Percent carbon 3 4
Tensile strength (psi) 42,000 50,000

Mixture of the two alloys can be determined by averaging that of the alloys that
are mixed together. For example, a one-ton mixture that is 40% alloy 1 and 60%
alloy 2 has a tensile strength of 0.4(42,000) + 0.6(50,000).

(1) (10%) Formulate a linear programming model for this problem.

(2) (10%) Use the graphical method to solve this model. (Draw the graph clearly)

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