NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Degree Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

OPERATIONS RESEARCH

TIE 5208

2nd Semester Supplementary Examination Paper

July/August 2015

This examination paper consists of 5 pages

Time Allowed: 3 hours

Total Marks: 100

Special Requirements:

Examiner’s Name: Eng. William M. Goriwondo

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Answer any five (5) Questions.

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

Copyright: National University of Science and Technology, 2014

TIE 5208 Page 1 of 5

Question 1
The transport manager of a company which has three (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 warehouses 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 Table Qu.1 below.
Table Qu.1

Warehouse Product
  Available
1 2 3 4
units
A 12 23 43 3 6
Factory

B 63 23 33 53 8
C 33 1 63 13 17
Required units 4 7 6 14 31

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]
Question 2
a) Explain the meaning of the following terms , when applied to the planning and control of inventory:.

(i) Deterministic, [3]

(ii) Stochastic. [3]

b) The forecast annual demand for a particular product sold by a retail store is 600 units; the cost is
$60 per unit. The cost of ordering and receiving delivery is $15 on each occasion. Stockholding costs
are 20% per annum of stock value.

You are required to:

i. Derive the basic economic batch quantity (EBQ) formula defining any symbols used and
stating clearly the assumptions you have made. [6]
ii. Calculate the optimum order quantity if there is to be instantaneous delivery of an
order. [3]
iii. Explain how the various stock related costs balance up to be economic. [5]

TIE 5208 Page 2 of 5

Question 3

(a) Your Company manufactures three products. You try to follow a policy of producing those which
contribute most to fixed costs and profit. However, there is also a policy of recognizing certain
minimum sales requirements: Currently these are as shown in Table Qu3.1. these are as shown in
Table 3.1. :

Table Qu 3.1 Minimum Sales Requirements

Product Units per week

X 20
Y 30
Z 60

You have three producing departments. The product times in hours per unit in each department and the
total times available each week in each department are as in the Table Qu 3.2 below.

Table Qu 3.2 Product Time

Time Required per product Total Time

(Hours) available
Department 1 0.25 0.20 0.15 420
Department 2 0.30 0.40 0.50 1048
Department 3 0.25 0.30 0.25 529

The contributions per unit of products X, Y, Z are $10.50, $9.00 and $8.00 respectively. Your Company
has scheduled 1558 units of X, 30 units of Y and 60 units of Z for production in the following week.

You are required to state whether the present schedule is an optimum one from a profit point of view
and, if it is not, what it should be. [15]

(b) In Linear programming, what are the differences in dealing with minimization and maximization
problems by graphical means? [4]
(c) How many constraints can be handled by graphical methods? [1]

Question 4
a) Discuss what transpires in each of the five (5) phases on Project Management. [15]
b) Explain how the Critical Path Method (CPM) is used in Project Management. [5]

TIE 5208 Page 3 of 5

Question 5
How are the following Operations Research Methods used in problem solving?
a) Visualisation, [4]
b) Modeling, [4]
c) Neural Networks, [4]
d) Pattern Recognition, [4]
e) Data Mining and Data Warehousing. [4]

Question 6
Table Qu.6 below defines the various activities of a small project.
Table Qu 6.1. Project Activity Durations
Activity Duration (Weeks)
A 3
B 2
C 5
D 4
E 3
F 6
G 1
H 2
I 4
J 5

TIE 5208 Page 4 of 5

The immediate precedence relationships are shown in Table Qu 6:2:
Table Qu 6.2 Precedence relationships
Activity A, must be B, C, E can start
finished before
Activity
C D
D F
E G,H,1
F J
G F

a) Draw the network diagram for the project. [6]

b) Calculate the critical activities, the overall project completion time and the float times for each
activity. [6]
c) Explain clearly (with reasons) the effect upon the overall project completion time if the completion
of activity E increases from 3 weeks to 6 weeks. [3]
d) Draw a typical Gantt Chart for this project. [5]

Question 7
a) In the phases of Operation Research, explain what transpires in the Problem Identification stage and
discuss any four tools that can be used during this stage. [10]
b) What are the pros and cons of using the Team Concept approach in solving Operations Research
problems? [5]
c) Explain the main considerations in the Bayesian Probability when using it as an Operations Research
Method. [5]

End of Examination

TIE 5208 Page 5 of 5