NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FA CULTY OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

OPERATIONS RESEARCH

TIE 5208

Examination Paper

May 2017

This examination paper consists of 4 pages

Time Allowed 3 hours

Total Marks 100

Special Requirements:

Examiner's Name Eng. William M. Goriwondo

INSTRUCTIONS

I . Answer any five (5) Questions.

2. Each question carries 20 marks.
3. Use of calculators is permissible.

Copyright: National University of Science and Technology, 2017

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 ~stion1
The District Development F d .
there are five (SJ un (DDF) ,n your area has four (4) wards it is operating from and
technicians to att rdequeS ts to service boreholes in different locations. You want to assign
en to these m · t
too/. If the dist & a,n enance requests and aspire to use an O~erafons Research
ances ,rom the t h . . ,
Table Qu. 1.l below. ec n,c,ans location to the boreholes' sigh re indicated in

Table Qu.1.1: Distances from technicians' locations to borehole

I
Borehole 1 1 Borehole 2 Borehole 3 Borehole 4
Wardl 10 30 15 25
Ward2 15 15 10 20
Ward3 30 20 20 10
, Ward4 20 I 25 25 10

a) Use the assignment algorithm to find an allocation that would minimize the total distance
travelled by the technicians. [15]
b) Explain how you would solve the same problem in Qu. l{a), if it was a maximization
problem. [5]

~estion2
Briefly explain how the following Operations Research Tools are applied in Problem Solving.
a) Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), [5]
b) Visualisation and [5]
c) Data Warehousing and Data Mining. [10]

Question 3
a) How does the Project Management Triangle impact on project success? [5]
b) You are the Project Manager of a project that has the following activities, durations and
precedence relationships as shown in Table Qu. 3.1 below.

Table Qu. 3.1: Project Activities and their precedence relationships

/ Activity ' Immediate Predecessor I Duration (Days) No. of workers required

/A - 5 5
IB - 6 5
IC - 10 10
fD· B 7 2
I E '· B
- 9 1
IF A,]3 6 5
IG ,0, f 5 10
IH IF 10 15
II /G 8 5
IJ ' E 5 5
IK A,B 9 5
IL /c 10 10
'

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 i. Draw the network diagram for this project using the Activity and Arrow {AOA)
format. [6]
ii. Establish the total duration of the project. [4]
iii. Draw a Gantt Chart that shows the number of workers that would be required each
~ ~

Quest;✓
A Manager is considering whether or not to build a manufacturing plant in Bulawayo. His
d .. .
ec,s,on is summarized in Table QU 4.1 be/ow.

Table Qu. 4.1: Decision alternatives and states of nature

Alternatives Favourable Unfavourable

Market Market
-$200,000

-$20,000

$0

0.4 0.6
Probabilities

a) Construct a decision tree. [7]

b) Determine the best strategy, using Expected Monetary Value {4]
c) What decision will be arrived at by using the following decision models
i. Maximax, {3]
ii. Maximin and [3]
iii. Equally Likely. [3]

Question 5
a) Distinguish between the Re-order level and the Periodic Review stock control systems.
[6]
b) Show how you would derive the Economic Order Quantity {EOQ}, using the Simple Stock
Control Model. NB. State all your assumptions. [14)

Question 6
The transport manager of a company which has 3 factories A, B, and C, and 4 warehouses 1, 2,
3 and 4 is faced with the problem of determining the way in which factories should supply
ware houses so as to minimize total transportation costs.

In the given month, the supply requirements of each warehouse, the product capacities of the
factories and the cost of shipping one unit of the product from each factory to each warehouse
in dollars($) are shown in the table Au 6.1

Copyright: National University of Science and Technology, 2017

Page 3 of 4
 Table Qu. 6.1 : Transportation costs

Warehouse Product
Available
1 2 3 4 units

A 12 23 43 3 6

B 63 23 33 53 8
~
0
tn, C 33 1 63 13 17
u.
Required
4 7 6 14 31
units

a) You are required to determine the minimum cost transportation plan. [14]
b) Calculate the cost of this plan. [2]
c) Explain the difference between solving a transportation maximization and minimization
problem. [4]

Questio✓
Discuss the five (5) significant features of Operations Research . [20]
\"'~ - Jv,Gf I

cllvtJ~ ~ .
~ ~INATION
(~C,

Copyright: National University f S .

o c1ence and Technology, 2017

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