AOR Problem Set
AOR Problem Set
AOR Problem Set
APPLIED
OPERATIONS
RESEARCH
PROBLEM SET
1
UNIT I
LINEAR PROGRAMMING
CLASS WORK
1. Product Mix
The Indian Electric company manufactures two popular brand of ceiling fans, Cool Home
and AL Bahar. Each fan is processed through two main departments: machine shop,
assembly and testing shop which have respectively 1200 machine hours and 1600 man-
hours on available capacity per day. Each Cool Home fan requires 3 hours of capacity of
machine shop and one hour capacity of assembly and testing shop. Similarly, each AL
Bahar fan requires 2 hours each of machine shop and assembly shop capacity. The market
for the two models has been surveyed recently which suggests that a maximum of 250
Nos. of Cool Home and 200 Nos. of AL Bahar can be sold per day.
If the profit of fans is Rs.60/- on a Cool Home and 80/- on a AL Bahar, what quantity of
each fan should be produced to maximize profit.
2. Media Selection
The client wishes that at least 50, 00,000 housewives should be exposed to T.V.
advertising. Also the expense on newspaper advertising must not exceed Rs. 5,00,000.
Formulate the problem as a linear programming problem.
3. Gasoline Mix
The manager of an oil refinery must decide on optimum mixing of two possible blending
processes of which inputs-outputs are as follows:
2
For process I, an input of one barrel of crude oil A and three barrels of crude oil B gives
an output of 50 gallons of gasoline X and 20 gallons of gasoline Y. For process II, an
input of four barrels of crude oil A and two barrels of crude oil B yield an output of 30
gallons of gasoline X and 80 gallons of gasoline Y. The maximum amounts of available
crude oil A and B are 120 barrels and 180 barrels respectively.
Sales commitments require at least 2800 gallons of gasoline X and 2200 gallons of
gasoline Y are produced. The profit per production run from process I and process II are
Rs. 4000 and Rs. 5000 respectively. Formulate the above blending problem as LP model.
4. Fertilizer Mix
Ingredients Composition
Bone metal Nitrogen Lime Phosphate
A 20% 30% 40% 10%
B 40% 15% 40% 5%
The cost of ingredients is Rs.20 per kg. for A and Rs.16 per kg for B
Write the LP formulation for the quantities of the ingredients to be mixed to minimize
material cost.
5. Investment decisions
Machines are expected to have landed cost of Rs.4 lakhs per gear shaping machine, Rs.8
lakhs per gear hobbing machine and Rs.6 lakhs per gear shaving machine. The expected
return on investment are 8%, 15% and 20% on gear shaping, gear hobbing and gear
shaving machines respectively.
3
Formulate the above investment decision as LP problem.
6. Manpower Requirement
The daily requirement of nurses in a private nursing home is given in the table below:
The nurses start work at the beginning of the shift (8 am, 12 noon, 4 pm, 8 pm, 12
midnight and 4 am) and work for 8 continuous hours. What is the minimum number of
nurses required to meet the daily demand?
7. FarmMix
A farmer has 100 acre farm. He can sell all tomatoes, lettuce or radishes he can raise.
The price he can obtain is Rs. 10 per kg for tomatoes, Rs. 15 a head for lettuce and Rs.
20 per kg for radishes. The average yield per acre is 2000 kg of tomatoes, 3000 heads of
lettuce and 1000 kg of radishes. Fertilizer is available at Rs. 50 per kg and the amount
required per acre is 100 kgs each for tomatoes and lettuce and 50 kgs for radishes. Labour
required for sowing, cultivating and harvesting per acre is 5 man-days for tomatoes and
radishes, and 6 man-days for lettuce. A total of 400 man-days of labor are available at
Rs. 200 per man day.
A company manufactures two products A and B. Both products pass through two
machines M1 and M2. The time required to process each unit of product A and B on each
machine center and the available capacity of each machine center is given below:
4
B 4 4
Available Hrs per week 3600 2000
Each unit of product A gives a profit of Rs.25 while each unit of product B gives a profit
of Rs.20.
The availability of material is sufficient only to produce 500 nos. of product of type A
and 400 nos. of product of type B.
Subject to
x1 + 2x2 ≥ 40
2x1 + x2 ≥ 50
x1 , x 2 ≥ 0
Products
Operation A B
Time Required
I 2 4
II 3 2
The company has an available capacity of 200 hours for operation I and 180 hours for
operation II. The profit per unit is Rs.30 per unit of Product A and Rs.40 per unit of
Product B.
Formulate the above problem as an LPP and determine the quantities of two products to
be manufactured to maximize profit.
12. Graphical Analysis when one or more constraints are indirectly specified
5
A company manufactures two kinds of industrial batteries, Super and Excel. The
respective profits are Rs.40 and Rs.30 per battery respectively. Super battery requires
twice as much time as required for Excel and if all batteries were of Excel make, the
company could make 1000 batteries per day. The raw material for both batteries is
common and is sufficient to produce 800 batteries per day (both Super and Excel
combined). The outer casings for the batteries are procured from two different local
suppliers. The suppliers of Super model can deliver one 400 casings per day while the
supplier of Excel model can supply 700 casings per day.
A research laboratory has two melts of copper nickel alloys to make up a new alloy. The
compositions of the alloys are:
To make up the new alloy, at least 10 kg of copper and 6 kg of nickel is needed. Melt I
cost Rs.25 per kg while Melt II costs Rs.30 per kg. What quantity of each melt is used to
minimize cost?
Max Z = 2 x1 + x2
Subject to
x1 + 2x2 ≤ 10
x1 + x2 ≤ 6
x1 - x2 ≤ - 2
x1 - 2x2 ≤ 1
x1 , x2 ≥ 0
A company manufactures two types of chairs, type A and type B. Both type of chairs
pass through three processes, shaping, setting and finishing. The standard man-hours for
each process per unit and available man-hours for each process per unit and available
man-hours for each department are given in the table
6
Chairs Departments
Shaping Setting Finishing
Processing time per unit (hrs)
A 6 2 3.6
B 4 4 4
Available man- 3600 2000 3600
hours
The availability of wood is sufficient to produce 500 nos. of chairs of type A and 400
nos. of chairs of type B.
Each chair of type A gives a profit of Rs.25 while each chair of type B gives a profit of
Rs.20.
Subject to
0.80 x1 + 1.20 x2 ≤ 720
x1 ≤ 600
x2 ≤ 400
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Maximize Z = 10 x1 + 20 x2
Subject to
2 x1 + 3 x2 ≥ 6
4 x1 + x2 ≥ 4
x1, x2 ≥ 0
7
18. Infeasible solution
Maximize Z = 3 x1 + 2 x2
Subject to
3 x1 + 5 x2 ≥ 15
2 x1+ 3x2 ≤ 6
x1, x2 ≥ 0
A manufacturer specializing in the manufacture of gears intends to add two more gears
to his existing product line. Both the types of gears will be worked in the blanking shape
and in the gear shop.
Each gear of type A requires 20 minutes in the blanking shop and 40 minutes in the gear
shop. Similarly, each gear of type B requires 10 minutes in the blanking shop and 10
minutes in the gear shop. The blanking shop and the gear shop have respectively 1200
minutes and 1600 minutes available per week.
The marginal profit of each gear of type A is Rs.10 and for each gear of type B is Rs.4.
The manufacturer is in the market upswing and can sell as he can produce. How many
units of each gear be produced to maximize profit?
Subject to -2x1 + x2 ≤ 1
x1 ≤ 2
x1+x2 ≤ 3
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Min Z = 2x1+3x2
8
22. Min Z = 2x1+3x2
Subject to x1 + x2 ≥ 5
x1+ 2x2 ≥ 6
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Max Z = 30x1+20x2
Subject to -x1 - x2 ≥ -8
-6x1 - 4x2 ≤ -12
5x1+8x2 = 20
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Min Z = 3x1+8x2
Subject to x1 + x2 = 200
x1≤ 80
x2≥ 60
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Max Z = 2x1+x2
Max Z = 6x1+4x2
9
27. Unbounded Solution
Max Z = 3x1+5x2
Subject to x1 - 2x2 ≤ 6
x1≤ 10
x2 ≥ 1
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Max Z = 6x1+4x2
Subject to x1 + x2 ≤ 5
x2 ≥ 8
x1, x2 ≥ 0
PRINCIPLES OF DUALITY
Max Z = 2x1+x2
Subject to x1 + 2x2 ≤ 10
x1+x2 ≤ 6
x1+x2 ≤ 2
x1 -2x2 ≤ 1
x1, x2 ≥ 0
Min Z = 2x1+5x2+x3
Subject to 9x1-3x2+5x3≥ 7
6x1-4x2-3x3 ≤ 2
x1, x2 , x3 ≥ 0
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
10
Find the optimum solution. Solve the problem,
a) Check whether the addition of the constraint 7x1 + 2x2 ≤ 65 affects the
optimality. If it does, find the new optimum solution.
b) Check whether the addition of the constraint 6x1 + 3x2 ≤ 48 affects the
optimality. If it does, find the new optimum solution.
11
Find the optimum solution.
A new product is P3 is included in the existing product mix. The profit per unit of
the new product is Rs.20. The processing requirements of the new product on the
lathe and milling machines are 6 hours per unit and 5 hours per unit, respectively.
LAB EXERCISES
Questions
12
36. Anderson Electronics
Questions
13
iii. What would happen if we could increase the supply of electronic
components by 4000 units (to a total of 8700 units)?
iv. Assume that we have an opportunity to get 250 additional hours of
assembly time. However, this time will cost us time and a half (i.e. Rs.
15 per hour rather than the current Rs. 10 per hour). Should we take
it?
v. Assume that there is some uncertainty in the price for DVD players.
For what range of prices will the current production be optimal? If
DVD players sold at Rs.106, what would be Anderson’s new total
profit?
14
Chemical 3 4 8 10 At least 280
X units
Chemical 10 25 20 40 At most1050
Z units
Questions
15
UNIT II
TRANSPORTATION MODELS
CLASS WORK
The cost of transporting one unit of the product from any plant A, B and C to any
warehouse P, Q and R is given in the following table:
Warehouse
Plants P Q R
Cost per unit (Rs.)
A 13 11 8
B 14 16 13
C 12 10 12
2. Use (i) North West Corner Method (ii) Least Cost Method and (iii) Vogel
Approximation Method to obtain the initial feasible solution for the following
transportation problem where the unit costs of transportation are given in the table
below:
Warehouse
Plants X Y Z Supply
A 10 3 9 400
B 12 10 5 300
C 8 11 12 300
Demand 200 300 500
16
5. A company has three warehouses W1, W2 and W3 and four consumption centers
C1, C2, C3 and C4. The warehouses have altogether 2200 units of a given
commodity in stock and the consumption centers have a total need of 1800 units
as under:
The cost of shipping one unit of the commodity from each warehouse to each
consumption center is given in the matrix below:
DEGENERACY
6. A firm has three plants P1, P2 and P3 and three warehouses W1, W2 and W3. The
transportation cost per unit dispatched along each route with capacity of each
plant and requirement of each warehouse is given in the table below:
Plant Warehouse
W1 W2 W3 Capacity of the
plant
Transportation Cost (Rs.)
P1 40 70 90 300
P2 12 80 30 400
P3 60 90 45 200
Requirement of 300 300 300 900
warehouse
17
7. A company manufacturing air coolers has plants at Bombay, Calcutta and
Kanpur. Supplies are made to three showrooms situated at Ranchi, Delhi and
Lucknow. Each manufacturing plant has capacity of 200 units per month. The
monthly requirements of showrooms are 150, 300 and 150 nos. respectively.
Due to difference in raw material cost and transportation cost, the profit per unit
is different for each showroom as given below:
Warehouse
P Q R Supply
F1 12 18 14 250
Factory
F2 13 14 13 100
Demand 150 80 120
TRANSSHIPMENT PROBLEM
S1 S2 S3 S4 D1 D2
S1 0 4 20 5 25 12
18
S2 10 0 6 10 5 20
S3 15 20 0 8 45 7
S4 20 25 10 0 30 6
D1 20 18 60 15 0 10
D2 10 25 30 23 4 0
10. The following table provides all the necessary information on the availability of
supply to each warehouse, the requirement of each market, and the unit
transportation cost (in Rs.) from each warehouse to each market.
Market
P Q R S Supply
A 6 3 5 4 22
Warehouse
B 5 9 2 7 15
C 5 7 8 6 8
Demand 7 12 17 9 45
The shipping clerk of the shipping agency has worked out the following schedule
based on his own experience:
12 units from A to Q,
1 unit from A to R,
9 units from A to S,
15 units from B to R,
7 units from C to P and
1 unit from C to R
11. ABC limited three production shops that supply a product to five warehouses.
The cost of production varies from shop to shop and cost of transportation from
one shop to a warehouse also varies. Each shop has a specific production capacity
and each warehouse has certain amount of requirement. The costs of
transportation are given below.
Warehouse Supply
Shop
I II II IV V
19
A 6 4 4 7 5 100
B 5 6 7 4 8 125
C 3 4 6 3 4 175
Demand 60 80 85 105 70 400
12. A company has four manufacturing plants and five warehouses. Each plant
manufactures the same product, which is sold at different prices in each
warehouse area. The cost of manufacturing and cost of raw materials are different
in each plant due to various factors. The capacities of the plants are also different.
The relevant data are given in the table below.
Plant
Item 1 2 3 4
Manufacturing cost/unit
12 10 8 8
in Rs.
Raw Material cost/unit 8 7 7 5
Capacity per unit time 100 200 120 80
The company has five warehouses. The sale price, transportation costs and
demands are given in the table below.
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Assignment Models
CLASS WORK
Subordinates
I II III IV
A 17 25 26 20
Jobs
B 28 27 23 25
C 20 18 17 14
D 28 25 23 19
2. A workshop has 4 machines and 4 tasks for completion. Each of the machines
can perform each of the 4 tasks. The time taken at each of the machines to
complete each task is given in the matrix below. How should the tasks be assigned
to machines to minimize requirement of machine hours?
Machines
A B C D
I 51 77 49 55
Jobs
II 32 34 59 68
III 37 44 70 54
IV 55 55 58 55
Machines
I II III IV
A 1000 1200 400 900
Jobs
B 600 500 300 800
C 200 300 400 500
D 600 700 300 1000
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MAXIMIZATION OBJECTIVE
City
A B C D
Branch P 11 11 9 9
Manager Q 13 16 11 10
R 12 17 13 8
S 16 14 16 12
5. A department head has 3 subordinates and 4 tasks for completion. The employees
differ in their capabilities and the task differ in their work content. With the
performance matrix given below, which 3 of the 4 tasks should be assigned to the
subordinates.
Subordinates
I II III
A 9 12 11
Tasks
B 8 13 17
C 30 12 13
D 21 15 17
6. A company has 4 jobs and 4 machines. The following matrix shows the cost of
assigning each job to each machine. How should the tasks be assigned to the
machines to minimize total cost.
Machines
M1 M2 M3 M4
W1 40 50 60 65
Jobs
W2 30 38 46 48
W3 25 33 41 43
W4 39 45 51 59
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TRAVELLING SALESMAN PROBLEM
Problem 7
Problem 8
Problem 9
23
Problem 10
The cost of providing this service by the transport company depends upon the time spent
by the bus crew (driver and conductor) away from their places in addition to service time.
There are five crews.
There is a constraint that every crew should be provided with more than 4 hours of rest
before the return trip again and should not wait for more than 24 hours for the return trip.
24
The company has residential facilities for the crew at Chandigarh as well as Delhi. Find
the optimal service line connections.
12. A company operates in four territories, and four salesmen available for an
assignment. The territories are not equally rich in their sales potential. It is estimated that
a typical salesman operating in each territory would bring in the following annual sales:
Territory: I II III IV
Annual Sales (Rs.) 126000 105000 84000 63000
The four salesmen also differ in their ability. It is estimated that working under the same
conditions, their yearly sales would be proportionately as follows:
Salesman: A B C D
Proportion: 7 5 5 4
If the criterion is maximum expected total sales, the intuitive answer is to assign the
best salesman to the richest territory, the next best salesman to the second richest and so
on. Verify this answer by the assignment technique.
13. A city corporation has decided to carry out repairs on four main dispensaries of the
city. The government has agreed to make a special grant of Rs. 50 lakh towards the costs,
with a condition that the repairs must be done at the lowest cost and quickest time. If
conditions warrant, then a supplementary token grant will also be considered favorably.
The corporation has floated tenders and five contractors have sent in their bids. In order
to expedite work, one dispensary will be awarded to only one contractor.
You as a consultant suggest to the corporate the best way of assigning the repair work to
the contractors. Also
(a) If it is necessary to seek supplementary grants, then what would be the
amount sought?
(b) Which of the five contractors will be unsuccessful in the bid?
25
UNIT III
GAME THEORY
TWO-PERSON ZERO SUM GAME (WITH SADDLE POINT)
1. The payoff matrix of a 2 person –zero sum game is given below. Find the best
strategy of each player and the value of the game.
Player B
Player B1 B2
A A1 3 5
A2 5 7
2. Solve the following game to determine optimal strategies for M and N. Also
obtain the value of the game
N
3 1 2 0
6 7 4 6
M
4 5 4 6
6 2 2 1
Player Y
I II III IV V
I -1 3 2 7 4
Player
II 3 -4 1 5 6
X
III 6 5 7 6 5
IV 2 0 6 3 1
Player B
Player B1 B2
A A1 6 3
A2 4 5
26
5. Solve the game
Player Q
Player Q1 Q2
P P1 10 5
P2 7 8
RULE OF DOMINANCE
B
I II III
I 6 5 2
A
II -1 1 -2
III 4 9 6
B
B1 B2 B3
A1 9 8 -7
A2 3 -6 4
A
A3 6 7 -7
A4 2 -7 3
METHOD OF MATRICES
B
I II III
I 3 -1 -3
A
II -3 3 -1
III -4 -3 3
GRAPHICAL METHOD
27
9. For the game below, find the optimal strategy using graphical method
B
I II III
A I 1 3 11
II 8 5 2
B
I II III IV V VI
A I 2 -2 3 4 3 7
II -4 6 5 1 4 6
I II
I -2 4
A
II 8 3
III 9 0
I II
I 3 -5
II 1 -1
A
III 2 -3
IV -1 3
V 0 1
28
13. Consider the following payoff matrix of Player A. Solve the game using graphical
method though it has a saddle point.
B
I II III IV V
A I 7 8 4 6 8
II -8 -6 1 9 6
LPP METHOD
14. Solve the game using LPP
B
9 1 4
A 0 6 3
5 2 8
15. Players A and B play a game in which each has three coins, Rs. 5, Rs. 10 and Rs.
20. Each selects a coin with the knowledge of the others choice. If the sum of the
coin is an odd amount, A wins B’s coin and if the sum of the coin is even, B wins
A’s coin. Find the best strategy for each player and the value of the game.
16. Two leading firms, Nirmala Textiles Ltd. And Swati Rayons Ltd., for years have
been selling shirting, which is but a small part of both firms’ total sales. The
Marketing Director of Nirmala Textiles raised the question, “What should the
firm’s strategies be in terms of advertising for the product in question?” The
systems group of Nirmala Textiles developed the following data for varying
degrees of advertising:
a) No advertising, medium advertising and heavy advertising for both firms
will result in equal market share.
b) Nirmala Textiles with no advertising: 40 percent of the market with
medium by Swati Rayons and 28 percent of the market with heavy
advertising by Swati Rayons.
c) Nirmala Textiles using medium advertising: 70 percent of the market with
no advertising by Swati Rayons and 45 percent of the market with heavy
advertising by Swati Rayons.
d) Nirmala Textiles using heavy advertising: 75 percent of the market with
no advertising by Swati Rayons and 52.5percent of the market with
medium advertising by Swati Rayons.
29
Based upon the above information, answer the marketing director’s
question.
17. In an election of MLA, two political parties A and B are thinking of nominating
a candidate in a closed session, whose results are to be announced simultaneously.
The following odds are offered for the various possible combination of
candidates:
The parties want to select candidates in accordance with standard minimax criterion.
What are the optimal strategies for party A and B?
30
UNIT IV
CLASS WORK
SIMULATION
1. A tourist car operator finds that during the past few months the car’s use has
varied so much that the cost of maintaining the car varied considerably. During
the past 200 days the demand for the car fluctuated as below:
Trips Frequency
per
week
0 16
1 24
2 30
3 60
4 40
5 30
Using random numbers simulate the demand for a ten week period.
2. An automobile production line turns out about 100 cars a day, but deviations
occur owing to many causes. The production is more accurately described by the
probability distribution given below:
Production/day Probability
95 0.03
96 0.05
97 0.07
98 0.10
99 0.15
100 0.20
101 0.15
102 0.10
103 0.07
104 0.05
105 0.03
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Finished cars are transported across the bay at the end of each day by ferry. If the
ferry has space for only 101 cars, what will be the average number of cars waiting
to be shipped and what will be the average number of empty spaces on the ship?
DECISION THEORY
Decision Making under Uncertainty
4. Consider the following payoff in terms of yearly net profits for each decision
alternatives
N1 N2 N3
D1 150 250 350
D2 450 250 200
D3 100 180 290
N1 N2
32
D1 30 35
D3 -20 10
a) Maximin criterion
b) Hurwitz criterion with α =0.2
Demand 10 20 30 40 50
Probability 0.2 0.35 0.25 0.15 0.05
a. Formulate payoff table
b. How much quantity should the departmental store buy to maximize its
profit?
Decision Tree
33
The company has to decide whether the new item can be manufactured or not? If
yes, which decision variable should be chosen?
9. A company manufactures 30 items per day. The sale of these items depends upon
demand, which has the following distribution:
Sales (units) 27 28 29 30 21 32
Probability 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.35 0.15 0.05
The production cost and sale price of each units are Rs.40 and Rs. 50,
respectively. Any unsold product is to disposed off at a loss of Rs. 15 per unit.
There is a penalty of Rs. 5 per unit if the demand is not met.
Using the following random numbers estimate total profit / loss to the company
for the next 10 days – 10,99,65,99,95,01,79,11,16,20.
If the company decides to produce 29 items per day, what is the advantage and
disadvantage to the company?
10. The director of finance for farming cooperative is concerned about the yield per
acre she can expect from this year’s corn crop. The probability distribution of the
yield for the current weather conditions is given below:
She would like to see a simulation of yields she might expect over next 10 years
for weather conditions similar to those she is now experiencing.
Simulate the average yield she might expect per acre using the following
random numbers: 20,72,34,54,30,22,28,48,74,76,02.
Price per kg
2.00 2.10 2.20 2.30 2.50
(Rs.)
Probability 0.05 0.15 0.30 0.25 0.10
34
Simulate the price she might expect to observe over the next 10 years using the
following random numbers – 82,95,18,96,20,84,56,11,52,03.
Assuming that prices are independent of yield, combine these two into the
revenue per acre and also find out the average revenue per acre she might
expect every year.
11. Dr. Strong is a dentist who schedules all her patients all her patients for 30-
minutes appointments. Some of the patients take more or less than 30 minutes
depending on the type of dental work to be done. The following summary shows
the various categories of work, their probabilities and the time actually needed to
complete the work.
Simulate the dentist’s clinic for four hours and determine average waiting time
for the patients as well as the idleness of the doctor. Assume that all the patients
show up at the clinic at exactly their scheduled arrival time starting at 8 am. Use
the following random numbers for handling the above problem –
40,82,11,34,25,66,17,79.
12. The investment staff of TNC Bank is considering four investment proposals for
a client: shares, bonds, real estate and savings certificate. These investments will
be held for one year. The past data regarding the four proposals are given below:
35
Savings Certificate: These certificates yield 8.5 percent with certainty.
Use a decision tree to structure the alternatives available to the investment staff,
and using the expected value criterion, choose the alternative with the highest
expected value.
13. A company has developed a new product in its R & D laboratory. The company
has the option of setting up production facility to market this product straight
away. If the product is successful, then over the three years expected product life,
the returns will be Rs 120 lakh with a probability of 0.70. If the market does not
respond favourable, then the returns will be only Rs. 15 lakh with probability of
0.30.
The company is considering whether it should test market this product building
a small pilot plant. The chance that the test market will yield favourable
response is 0.80. If the test market gives favourable response, then the chance of
successful total market improves to 0.85.
If the test market gives poor response then the chance of success in the total
market is only 0.30.
As mentioned before, the returns from the successful market will be Rs. 120
lakh and from an unsuccessful market will be only Rs. 15 lakh. The installation
cost to produce for the total market is Rs.40 lakh and the cost of test marketing
pilot plant is Rs. 5 lakh. Using decision-tree analysis, draw a decision-tree
diagram and carry out necessary analysis to determine the optimal decisions.
36
UNIT V
CLASS WORK
QUEUEING THEORY
1. The tools in a factory are issued to the workmen at a centrally located window
called tool crib. Workers who need tools or who wish to return tools approach the
window when the crib clerk issues or accepts tools on the basis of First-Come-
First-Served. The service time for the receipt and issue of the tools is distributed
negative exponentially with the mean of 4 minutes per workman. If the workers
arrive simply at random at an average of 20 workers per 100 minutes, determine
a. average number of workers waiting at the tool crib for service
b. average waiting time in the queue
c. % of time that the crib clerk is idle.
3. ABC Company has a hob shaping machine. The hobs requiring regrinding are
sent from the company’s tool crib which at present is operated one shift per day
of 8 hours. Arrival of the hob at the tool crib is random with an average time of
80 minutes between one arrival and the next. The regrinding time of the hob is
distributed negative exponentially with a mean of 40 minutes.
a. For what fraction of time the machine is busy?
b. What is the average length of the queue that is formed from time to time?
c. How long does a hob wait in the queue?
d. The management is prepared to recruit another grinder and thereby start
another shift on this machine when the utilization of the machine on single
shift basis increases to 75%. What should the arrival rate be?
37
4. Customers arrive at a window drive-in bank according to the Poisson distribution
with a mean of 10 per hour. Service time per customer is exponential with mean
of 5 minutes. There are 3 spaces in front of the window including one for the car
being serviced. Other arriving cars wait outside these 3 spaces.
a. What is the probability that an arriving customer can enter one of the three
spaces in front of the window?
b. What is the probability that an arriving customer will have to wait outside
the 3 spaces?
c. How long is the arriving customer expected to wait before starting
service?
d. How many car spaces should be provided in front of the window so that
an arriving customer can wait in front of the window
i. at least 20% of the time.
ii. at least 40% of the time.
5. An insurance company has 3 claim adjusters in their main office. The customers
are found to arrive according to Poisson process at an average rate of 40 per 8
hours to settle claims against the company. The time spent by the adjuster with
the claimant is found to have a negative exponential distribution with a mean
service time of 24 minutes. The claimants are served on First-Come-First-Served
basis. Calculate
a. average number of claimants waiting to see the claim adjuster
b. average number of claimants in the insurance office
c. average waiting time for the claimant
d. average time the claimant spends in the office
e. Number of hours spent by the adjuster in working on the claims.
6. There are 3 clerks in the loan section of the bank to process the initial queries of
the customer. The arrival rate of the customers follows a Poisson distribution and
it is 20 per hour. The service rate also follows Poisson distribution and it is 9
customers per hour. Find
a. average number of customers in queue and in the system
b. average waiting per customer in the queue and in the system.
REPLACEMENT MODELS
7. The machine costs Rs. 12,200 and the scrap value is Rs 200. The maintenance cost of
the machine is given below:
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Year (n) Maintenance Cost (Rs)
1 200
2 500
3 800
4 1200
5 1800
6 2500
7 3200
8 4000
When should the machine be replaced?
8. There are 2 types of auto rickshaws Type A and Type B. The purchase prices of these 2
types are Rs.7000 and Rs.9000 respectively. The resale value and the running cost for
the 2 types are given below:
Type A Type B
9. The cost of a new inkjet printer is Rs.5500. The running cost of the nth year is
given by Rn = 550(n-1) where n=1, 2, 3... If the discount rate is 0.4 per year,
determine after how many years it will be economical to replace the printer with
new one.
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10. A small workshop is involved in sheet metal work is on the look for the purchase
of a small sheet welding machine. A manufacturer offers 2 choices namely
Machine A and Machine B. The following details are supplied by the
manufacturer.
Machine A Machine B
Initial Cost 12000 6000
Running Cost 1920 for first 5 2880 for first 6 years
years and increase and increase by 480 per
by 480 per year year thereafter
thereafter
Worth of Capital 10% per year 10% per year
11. The following failure rates are for the resistor in an electrical system. The number
of resistors in an electrical system is 1000 at the beginning.
End of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
week
Cumulative 0.03 0.15 0.24 0.44 0.67 0.85 0.95 1.00
Probability
of failure
The cost of replacing an individually failed resistor is Rs. 1.30. If all the resistors are
replaced in a group, the cost per resistor is 32 paise.
If a decision is made to replace all the resistors at a time at fixed intervals and replace the
individual resistors as and when they fail. What will be the optimal group replacement
period? At what group replacement price per resistor will a policy of strictly individual
replacement become preferable for the adopted group replacement policy?
12. It has been suggested by data processing firm that they adopt a policy and
periodically replace all the tubes in a certain piece of experiment equipments. The
tube is known to have the normal distribution as given below.
Tube 1 2 3 4 5
Failure/week
Probability 03 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3
of failure
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There are approximately 1000 tubes in the equipment. The cost of replacing the tube on
an individual basis is estimated to be Rs.100 per tube and the cost of group replacement
policy is Rs. 3 per tube. Compare the cost of preventive replacement with that of remedial
replacements.
13. A road transport company has one reservation clerk on duty at a time. He handles
information on bus schedules and makes reservations. Customers arrive at a rate
of 8 per hour and the clerk can, on an average, service 12 customers per hour.
After stating your assumptions, answer the following:
a) What is the average number of customers waiting for the service of the
clerk?
b) What is the average time a customer has to wait before being served?
c) The management is contemplating to install a computer system for
handling information and reservations. This is expected to reduce the
service time from 5 to 3 minutes. The additional cost of having the new
system works out to Rs. 50 per day. If the cost of goodwill of having to
wait is estimated to 12 paise, per minute spent waiting, before being
served, should the company install the computer system? Assume an 8
hours working day.
14. A tax consulting firm has 4 service counters in its office for receiving people who
have problems and complaints about their income, wealth and sales taxes.
Arrivals average 80 persons in an 8-hour service day. Each tax adviser spends an
irregular amount of time servicing the arrivals, which have been found to have an
exponential distribution. The average service time is 20 minutes. Calculate the
average number of customers in the system, average number of customers waiting
to be serviced, average time a customer spends in the system, and average waiting
time for a customer. Calculate how many hours each week does a tax adviser
spend performing his job.
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