ZAMBIAN OPEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES

2022-SEMESTER ONE (1) ASSIGNMENTS
BBA 313 – OPERATIONS RESEARCH
LECTURER: MR. L. SIMATAA MOBILE NO. 0977-564568
EMAIL: [email protected]

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Answer all the questions
2. Full credit will only be given if all the working is shown. Answers alone whether
correct or wrong without any working shown will earn a zero mark.

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ASSIGNMENT TWO DUE DATE: 25TH MARCH, 2022

QUESTION ONE

(a) A transport company engaged in carrying parcels has three branches to serve five
customers. The distance (km) from each branch to each of the customer is given below:
Customers Number of
Branches A B C D E trucks available
I 10 8 12 9 3 15
II 4 4 6 6 7 12
III 15 7 11 13 8 16
Number of trucks required 8 8 4 7 6

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 i. Find out using VAM the allocation of trucks from branches to customers in order
to minimize the total cost of transportation assuming that the cost is proportional
to distance. What is the minimum required distance (km) to be run by the trucks?
ii. If an arrival of a V.V.I.P. blocks the traffic from branch I to customers C and D
and from branch II to customers D and E, what should be the optimal allocation in
order to minimize the total transportation cost?
(b) Four suppliers have submitted sealed bids that quote the price per case of harinets delivered
to four regional stores of the army. The bids are summarized in the following table. The
regional store’s requirements as well as the supplying capacities of the suppliers are shown.
Supplier 4 has quoted for only region 1. Because of previous contractual obligations, region
3 will have to get a minimum of 2,000 cases from supplier 2.
Region
R1 R2 R3 R4 Max. supply (cases)

S1 30 25 40 35 800
Supplier
S2 35 32 38 40 1,000

S3 28 30 35 38 1,500

S4 25 - - - 600

Required (cases) 1,000 800 1,200 750

i. Formulate this problem as a transportation model including all the constraints.

ii. Find the initial basic solution using V.A.M.
iii. Use MODI method to establish whether the above solution obtained is optimal or
not.

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QUESTION TWO
(a) The following tasks are to be completed on vehicles at a service station:
To
A B C D E F
A - 139 112 110 132 112
B 139 - 122 105 109 110
From C 112 122 - 117 126 108
D 110 105 117 - 134 111
E 132 109 126 134 - 118
F 112 110 108 111 118 -
She plans to start her journey from city A and to return back to this city after visiting all
the cities without visiting any city more than once.
i. Find the sequence of the cities for her visit programme for minimum total
distance travelled.
ii. What is the total distance travelled?
(b) State the dual of the following and solve the same by the simplex method:
Maximize Z = 4 x1 + 2 x2
subject to 2x1 + 3 x2 + 5 x3 ≥ 2,
3 x1 + x2 + 7 x3 ≤ 3,
x1 + 4 x2 + 6 x3 ≤ 5,
x1 , x2 ≥ 0, x3 unrestricted

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QUESTION THREE
A plant is engaged on the production of two products which are processed through three
departments; the number of hours required to finish each is indicated in the table below.
Product
Department A B Max. hours available (per week)
I 7 8 1,600
II 8 12 1,600
III 15 16 1,600
(a) If the profit for the product is K6 for a unit of product A, but only K4 for a unit of
product B,
i. What quantities per week should be planned to maximize profit?
ii. Illustrate the problem graphically.
(b) Capacity can be increased in one department only.
i. In which department should it be done and why?
ii. To what extent should the capacity be increased?
(c) If the cost per hour in department I is K25, in department II, K40 and in department III,
K50, what quantities should be planned to minimize the cost of production?

QUESTION FOUR
A firm produces three items A, B and C and requires two types of resources – man-hours and
raw material. The following L.P. problem has been formulated to determine the optimum
production schedule that maximizes the total profit:
Maximize Z = 3 y1 + y2 + 5 y3 ,
subject to 6y1 + 3 y2 + 5 y3 ≤ 45, (man-hours),
3 y1 + 4 y2 + 5 y3 ≤ 30, (raw material),
y1 , y2 , y3 ≥ 0,

Where y1 , y2 , y3 are the number of items A, B and C. the optimal solution with y4 and y5 as slack
variables is

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 cj 3 1 5 0 0

cB Basis y1 y2 y3 y4 y5 b

3 y1 1 1 0 1 1 5
− −
3 3 3
5 y3 0 1 1 1 2 3
−
5 5

c j = cj − zj 0 −3 0 0 −1

(a) Find the range on the unit profit A. If c1 = 4 what is the optimal solution?
(b) If additional 10 units of raw material can be obtained at a cost K12, is it profitable to do
so?
(c) If the available raw material is increased to 50 units, what is the optimal solution?
(d) Due to ‘technological breakthrough’ the raw material required by item B is reduced to 2
units. Will it affect the optimal solution?
(e) If a supervision constraint, 2 y1 + y2 + 3 y3 ≤ 20 is added to the original problem, how is
the optimal solution affected?

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QUESTION FIVE
The following tasks are to be completed on vehicles at a service station:

Task Description Preceding Time (seconds)

tasks
A Driver arrives and stops - 20
B Driver selects brands of oil and petrol A 10
C Fill petrol tank B 100
D Prepare bill C and L 50
E Receive payment D 50
F Wash wind screen A 20
G Polish wind screen F 20
H Check tyre pressure A 100
J Inflate tyre H 90
K Open bonnet A 20
L Check oil requirement K 80
M Fill oil B and L 20
N Add distilled water to battery K 30
O Fill radiator K 30
P Close bonnet M,N,P 10
R Driver departs from forecourt E,G,J,Q 20

(a) Draw the CPM network

(b) Find the total float for each activity
(c) Find the independent float for each activity
(d) Find the free float for each activity

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QUESTION SIX
Consider the following payoff table.
STATE OF NATURE
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6

D1 7 6 9 11 10 12

D2 8 7 12 7 6 10

D3 12 10 6 8 9 12
Decision Alternative
D4 7 14 11 6 7 11

D5 5 6 8 10 11 13

D6 9 12 12 9 8 8

If the decision maker is facing conditions of uncertainly, what decision would be made using?
(a) Laplace criterion?
(b) Maximin criterion?
(c) Maximax criterion?
(d) Savage criterion?
(e) Hurwicz criterion? Use α = 0.6 .

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