IS102

Computer as an Analysis Tool

AY2014-15 Term 1 Final Exam

3 Dec 2014


IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool




INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

• Time allowed for this examination paper is 2 hours.
• This examination paper contains TWO (2) questions and comprises NINE (9) pages inclusive of
this instruction sheet. You are required to answer ALL questions within the spaces provided in
the examination paper.
• This is an OPEN BOOK examination.
• You are ALLOWED to use a Laptop but must DISABLE ALL NETWORK CONNECTIONS.
• There shall be NO ENQUIRY during the exam. State any assumptions if necessary when you
answer the questions.



Student Name: _______________________________
Seat No


Student No.: ________________ _________________________________


Section: __________________________________________________________

Marks Awarded

Question 1 13

Question 2 12

TOTAL 25

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Question 1 (13 marks)

Joe’s Market sells three kinds of food product: vegetables, fruits, and drinks. Table 1
shows 15 food items that Joe’s Market sells and their prices. Table 2 shows the price
ranges and discount amounts (in percentage). The store offers discount coupons to all
customers. If the final bill amounts to between $30 and $49.99 (both inclusive) then the
customer will receive 5% off coupon. Table 3 shows the template for a customer receipt.
It lists all food items, their quantities, and item-specific total in dollars.

Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

Table 4

Part A (1 mark)
Create a formula in Cell J17 to compute the “Subtotal” over all food items purchased.
Provide the formula for Cell J17.

=SUMPRODUCT(I2:I16*C2:C16) or
=SUM(J2:J16)

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Part B (1 mark)
Convert Table 2 into a Lookup Table as shown in Table 4 and complete the table below.

Part C (1 mark)
Given the customer’s “Subtotal” as computed in Part A, determine the correct Joe’s
Discount Coupon amount in Cell I19, using the Lookup Table (Table 4) from Part B.
Provide the formula for Cell I19.

=LOOKUP(J17,E9:E14,F9:F14) or
=VLOOKUP(J17,E9:F14,2,TRUE) or
=INDEX(F9:F14,MATCH(J17,E9:E14,1))

Part D (2 marks)
Joe’s Market offers TGIF coupon. If the customer transaction occurs on a Friday, the
store offers an additional 5% off coupon if the total bill (before applying Joe’s Discount
Coupon) is at least $50 and if the total number of food items purchased is at least five.
Determine the correct TGIF coupon amount in Cell I20. Provide the formula for Cell I20.

=IF(AND(WEEKDAY(TODAY())=6,J17>=50,SUM(I2:I16)>=5),5%,0%)

Part E (3 marks)
Suppose that you have a budget of $150 for this week’s grocery shopping. Because
potatoes and oranges are offered at a reduced price this week, Joe’s Market is limiting
the number of potatoes to maximum five per purchase and the number of oranges to
maximum eight per purchase. Additionally, your baby sister wants three apples.

Formulate the above problem as a linear programming problem to maximize the amount
you can spend without exceeding your shopping budget. Complete the following:

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Decisions (Changing Cells): I2:I16

Objective Function (Target Cell): I21(Max)

Constraints:
I21 <= 150
I2:I16 = Integer
I4 <= 5
I7 = 3
I8 <= 8

Simplex LP will not work.

Use GRG Nonlinear

Part F (1 mark)
What is the subtotal and total for the optimal solution?

Sub-total (Cell J17): $175.40

Total (Cell I21): $149.09

Part G (2 marks)
The sales of onion have increased over the past six months (Month 1 through Month 6 as
shown in Table 5, create Table 5 in a new worksheet). Find the linear relationship
between month and onion sales (quantity) using the data provided in Table 5. Complete
the table below with your forecast (Cell B8:B13).

Table 5

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Provide the linear equation below.

y = 36.857x + 507.33

Part H (2 marks)
At the beginning of each month, Joe’s Market sends out a Happy Birthday Discount
coupon via SMS to customers who meet all the following conditions:
1) Customer’s birthday occurs in the current month,
2) Customer’s loyalty points exceed 3000 points, and
3) Customer’s last visit to Joe’s Market occurred in the last three months (90
days).

Joe’s Market stores customer information as shown in Table 6 (create Table 6 in a new
worksheet).

Table 6

Provide the formula for Cell E2 that determines customer’s eligibility.

=IF(AND(MONTH(TODAY()) = MONTH(B2),C2>3000,(TODAY() - D2)<=90),

"Send Coupon", "No Coupon")

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Question 2 (12 marks)

XYZ Company plans to provide bus service between City A and City B at interval of 5
minutes every afternoon from 5:00pm to 7:00pm (peak hours). The bus can only
accommodate up to 30 passengers and the departure lounge in bus station can hold up
to 40 waiting passengers. If the departure lounge is full, the passengers waiting outside
the bus station will be “rejected” (not allowed to wait outside and have to leave the
station). In the departure lounge, passengers will queue in a line (on a first-come-first-
served basis) and board the bus sequentially when the bus arrives.

Each passenger takes a few seconds to board the bus. Younger passengers usually take
lesser time while older passengers may take a bit more time. Average boarding time per
passenger follows a uniform distribution given in Table 7 (equal likelihood of each
average boarding time occurring).

Bus will depart once boarding is completed (either the capacity of the bus is reached or
there are no more passengers in the departure lounge). Ticket is currently priced at
$2.50 per passenger. Based on the historical data, passengers arriving at the station
during 5 minute interval follow the distribution given in Table 8.

Create a spreadsheet model following the template given in Figure 1

Column C – Bus Arrival Time

Column D – The number of who passengers arrived before the Bus Arrival Time
Column E – The number of passengers in the station who are waiting to board the bus
Column F – The number of passengers who managed to board the bus
Column G – The number of passengers who are unable to board the bus because it is full
and have to wait for the next bus in the lounge
Column H – Revenue collected for each bus
Column I – The passengers who arrived but were unable to get into the station
(“Rejected”)
Column J – Bus Departure Time

Table 8

Table 7

Figure 1

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Part A (6 marks)
Create a spreadsheet model using the template given above; fill in the formulas for the
cells indicated below. Note that the formulas must work when using the fill function.

Cell Formula Marks

D7 = LOOKUP(RAND(), $N$6:$N$9, $M$6:$M$9)

=LOOKUP(RAND(),$Q$3:$Q$6,$P$3:$P$6) 1
Random value using a CRF table

E7 = MIN($G$2, G6 + D7)
=MIN(D8+G7,$G$2) 0.5
Passengers waiting + newly arrived, up to the capacity of the station

F7 = MIN($D$2, E7)
=MIN($D$2,E8) 1
As many of the waiting passengers as the bus capacity allows

G7 = E7 - F7
=E8-F8 0.5
Waiting passengers - those who caught the bus

I7 = MAX(0, E6 + D7 - $G$2)
=MAX(D8+G7-$G$2,0) 1
As many of the waiting passengers as the bus capacity allows

= C7 + TIME(0, 0, F7 * SMALL($L$16:$M$19,
RANDBETWEEN(1, COUNT($L$16:$M$19))))

=F8*INDEX($O$11:$P$14,RANDBETWEEN(1,4),RANDBETWEEN
= C7 + F7 * INDEX($L$16:$M$19,
J7 2
(1,2))/(3600*24)+C8
RANDBETWEEN(1,4), RANDBETWEEN (1,2))/(3600*24)

Bus arrival time + number boarding * a randomly chosen average

boarding time. Either formula will work

Part B (2 marks)
The management would like to understand the impact of departure lounge (Cell G2)
capacity on the average number of people queuing at the station. Perform “what-if”
analysis to identify the average number of passenger in queue if we vary the departure
lounge capacity to 100 and 200 respectively. You need to simulate the model for at least
1000 times to get reliable results.

Departure
Average number of passenger in queue Marks
lounge capacity

100 40 +/-
35 5to 37 1

200 50 10
60 +/- to 54 1

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IS102 Computer as an Analysis Tool

Part C (1 mark)
What is the average revenue per day based on departure lounge capacity of 40
passengers?

Average between $1790 and $1803

Part D (3 marks)
What is the impact of changing departure lounge capacity from 100 to 200 on daily
revenue? Briefly explain your answer.

No impact.
Because increasing departure lounge capacity without increasing bus
frequency or bus capacity only result in more passengers left queuing in the
departure lounge.

End of Paper