INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT KOZHIKODE

Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management

Course Outline

Program Name EPGP

Course Code & Course Title ADVANCED OPERATIONS RESEARCH
Course type Elective
Pre-requisites (if any) NIL
Course Credit 2
Total No. of sessions 8
Session Duration 2.5 hours
Term Quarter 5
Year and Batch 2nd Year, EPGP – 15
Sections (if any) -
Instructor Dr P N Ram Kumar
Contact Details PNR: 0495-2809426, ram@iimk.ac.in
Office PNR: Faculty Block 3, Room No. 6
Consultation Hours Weekdays, 4 pm – 5 pm

Introduction

In today’s increasingly competitive and global business environment, managers often

face large scale decision problems that are too difficult to be solved to optimality within time
limits deemed practical. Examples include many problems that arise in manufacturing and
service industries such as machine scheduling, resource allocation, telecommunications
network design, vehicle routing and scheduling, portfolio selection, market segmentation,
designing sales territories, so on and so forth. Recently, great strides have been made to obtain
near-optimal solutions for large scale optimization problems using a family of approaches that
are known as meta-heuristics. These nature inspired approaches include, but not limited to,
Tabu Search, Genetic Algorithms, Simulated Annealing, Ant Colony Optimization, Scatter
Search, etc. Unlike exact solution methodologies, meta-heuristics provide near-optimal
solutions in very less computational time and thereby assisting managers in taking quick
decisions in many complex scenarios.

In this course, the students are expected successful implementations of these techniques
on examples taken from industry that are reported in literature will serve as a starting point for
class discussions. Emphasis will be placed on the selection of the technique and the nuances
involved in its implementation in the relevant application domain.
Learning Objective / Course Outcome

CLO Course Learning Key Verb Linked Key word Degree of Outcome
No Objective PLO No linking emphasis given measurement
From CLO with to the PLO in Measured /
Bloom’s PLO the course Not measured
Taxonomy Introduced /
verb list Emphasized /
Reinforced
 1
Model and solve
real-life
optimization
problems using
different tools and
techniques

Develop a generic
2 understanding of
the theory behind
various
heuristics/meta-
heuristics

3 2.1 Emphasized
Derive the ability
to identify and
implement an
optimization
technique that
best suits the
given scenario
across various
business domains

Textbooks and Learning Materials (if any)

Text Books Frederick S. Hillier & Mark S. Hillier, Introduction to Management Science,
Tata McGraw Hill, Latest Edition
Reference Books Colin R. Reeves (Ed.,) (1993) Modern Heuristic Techniques for
Combinatorial Problems, Orient Longman (ISBN: 0-470-22079-1)

Additional Readings (if any)

R1 Reading material 1 (RM1): Fred Glover (1990) Tabu search: A Tutorial,

Interfaces, Vol. 20 (4), pp. 74 – 94.
R2 Reading material 2 (RM2): Michel Gendreau and Jean Yvyes Potvin (2005) Meta-
heuristics in Combinatorial Optimization, Annals of Operations Research, Vol. 140, pp.
189 – 213.
R3 Reading material 3 (RM3): Dorigo, M., Maniezzo, V., and Colorni, A., (1996) Ant system:
optimization by a colony of cooperating agents, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and
Cybernetics: Part B, Vol. 26 (1), pp. 29 – 41.

Technology & Software (if any)

Excel Solver

Other Resources (Journals, Internet Websites) (if any)

 NIL

Pedagogy/Learning Process

This course would use a mix of pedagogical tools such as lectures, case discussions, simulations, and
videos to support learning.
Evaluation Components/Assessment of Student Learning

Assessment Weight Remarks PLO Tested

Tool (give the PLO
No)
Surprise 30% This component is meant to ensure students come
Quizzes prepared to the class rather than just prepare before
the examinations.
End term exam 50% This component helps in assessing students’ 2.1
conceptual understanding of the topics discussed in
the class and their ability to adapt them to real-life
managerial problems.
Class 20% To motivate students to actively participate in case
participation & discussions and brainstorming sessions.
Case
discussions

Session Plan

Session Module Topic covered Reading Material

No.
1 Network Decision trees, Shortest path problem, Chapters 3,4, & 5
Optimization Minimum cost network flow problem,
models Minimum spanning tree problem,
Critical path computations
2-3 Integer Simple IP examples, Knapsack Chapters 7, 8
programming problem, Fixed charge transportation
problems problem, Quantity discounts,
Traveling salesman problem, Set
covering & Set partitioning problem
4 Data DEA, Non-dominated solutions, TBA
Envelopment Pareto front, Weighted-sum approach,
Analysis Lexicographic approach, MOGA
(DEA) &
Multi-
Objective
optimization
5 Simulation Monte Carlo Simulation TBA
6-8 Nature inspired Computational complexity, need for RM1, RM2 and RM3
algorithms heuristics, quality of heuristics,
Genetic algorithms, Simulated
annealing, Taboo search and Ant
Colony Optimization
Additional Instructions (If any)

a. Group formation: Cases are an integral part of this course and case analysis is a team
based task with an upper cap of 5 students each. Students are expected to select other
members in the team disregarding caste, creed and religion.

b. Case analysis: Analysis of all the cases should be carried out by all the groups and PPTs
have to be sent to the instructor in advance. Randomly picked groups will make
presentations in the class. It may so happen that a group may be required to make more
than one presentation and some groups may not get an opportunity to make presentation
at all. In the case of former, the best presentation will be accounted for and in the case of
latter, evaluation will be based on the content quality of PPT.

c. Class conduct and Plagiarism: Any material included in the reports, PPTs without
acknowledging the source summarily qualifies to be treated as a case of plagiarism and
will be dealt in accordance with extant rules. Students misbehaving during
class/tutorial/exam sessions will be awarded a non-negotiable ‘F’ grade for the entire
course, regardless of their past performance at IIMK or in their earlier education or
professional career.