Operations Research

Assignment 1
Guidelines:
a) The assignment is to be completed in the group assigned.
b) The numerical problems can be solved manually or using MS-Excel in a single File. Questions to be
solved in separate worksheets. Rename the worksheets stating the question number

1) Eight cargo ships can be used for shipping goods from one port to any of the eight destinations labelled
as destination 1 to 8. Any ship can be used for pairing this origin port to the eight destination ports.
However, because of the differences in the ships and the cargos, the total cost (in dollars) of loading,
transporting, and unloading the goods for different ship-destination port combinations varies
considerably, as shown in the table below.

Ship Dest 1. Dest Dest 3. Dest 4. Dest 5. Dest Dest 7. Dest 8.

2. 6.
A 500 400 600 700 450 320 750 560
B 600 600 700 500 300 450 540 380
C 700 500 700 600 850 550 470 670
D 500 400 600 600 650 540 430 320
E 400 350 500 390 350 450 370 520
F 600 500 450 480 520 460 430 500
G 650 600 450 500 350 400 470 390
H 700 680 650 500 540 550 600 650
The objective is to assign the eight ships to eight different ports in such a way as to minimise the total
cost for all eight shipments.

2) Welldone company has taken the third floor of a multi-storeyed building for rent with a view to locate
one of their zonal offices. There are five main rooms in this to be assigned to five managers. Each room
has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some have windows, some are closer to the washrooms or to
the canteen or secretarial pool. The rooms are of all different sizes and shapes. Each of the five managers
were asked to rank their room preferences amongst the rooms 301, 302, 303, 304 and 305. Their
preferences were recorded in a table as indicated below:

MANAGER
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5
302 302 303 302 301
303 304 301 305 302
304 305 304 304 304
301 305 303
302

Most of the managers did not list all the five rooms since they were not satisfied with some of these
rooms and they have left these from the list. Assuming that their preference can be quantified by
numbers, find out as to which manager should be assigned to which room so that their total preference
ranking is a minimum.
3) The captain of a cricket team has to allot five middle batting positions to five batsmen. The average runs
scored by each batsman at these positions are as follows:

Batsme Batting Positions

n I II III IV V
P 40 40 3 25 50
5
Q 42 30 1 25 27
6
R 50 48 4 60 50
0
S 20 19 2 18 25
0
T 58 60 5 55 53
9

a) Find the assignment of batsmen to positions, which would give the maximum number of runs.
b) If another batsman ‘U’ with the following average runs in batting positions as given below is
added to the team, should he be included to play in team? If so, who will be replaced by him?

Batting I II III IV V
Position:
Average Runs: 45 52 38 5 49
0

4) Amco Ltd has five manufacturing plants P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 at five different locations. The company now
wants to introduce three new products A, B, and C in the market. Since the manufacturing capacity of the
plants is limited, only one product can be manufactured in one plant. The unit production and average
distribution costs are given in the following tables:

Unit Production Cost (Rs) Unit Distribution Cost (Rs)

Produc P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Product P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
t

A 20 24 21 35 28 A 12 6 13 3 6

B 12 28 40 25 20 B 14 6 8 10 12

C 21 17 30 22 16 C 17 8 12 18 16

The estimated sales and prices of the three products are as follows

Product Sale (No of Selling price (Rs)

units)

A 800 50

B 1000 50

C 400 70
a) Formulate the given information as an appropriate model.
b) Using this information, state which product should be produced in which plant so that the aggregate
profits are maximised. What is the total profit amount?

5) An air conditioning manufacturer produces room-air-conditioners at plants in Ludhiana, Nagpur and

Meerut. These are sent to regional distributors in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Ranchi. The shipping costs
vary and the company would like to find the least-cost way to meet the demands at each of the
distribution centres (DC). Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Ranchi needs 800, 600, 200 and 400 air-
conditioners per month respectively. Ludhiana, Nagpur and Meerut has 950, 550 and 500 units available
each month respectively. The shipping cost per unit from Ludhiana to Delhi is Rs 800, to Pune is Rs
1000, to Bangalore is Rs 1400 and to Ranchi Rs. 1100. The shipping cost per unit from Nagpur to Delhi is
Rs 1100, to Pune is 900, to Bangalore is Rs 1200 and to Ranchi is Rs 1400. The shipping cost per unit
from Meerut to Delhi is Rs 500, to Pune is Rs 1400, to Bangalore is Rs 1500 and to Ranchi is Rs 800.
Based on this information find out:
a) Optimal distribution shipment plan from each plant to each regional DC’s?
b) What is the total cost of transportation?
c) If the shipping cost from Ludhiana to Bangalore is reduced by Rs. 150, will the solution change?

6) The Hardgrave Machine Company produces electronic components at its plants in Bangalore, Lucknow,
and Pune. These plants have not been able to keep up with demand for orders at Hardgrave’s four
warehouses in Chennai, Gurgaon, Mumbai, and Kolkata. As a result, the firm has decided to build a new
plant to expand its productive capacity. The two sites being considered are Coimbatore and Vadodara;
both cities are attractive in terms of labor supply, administrative services, and ease of factory financing.
Following table presents the production costs and output requirements for each of the three existing
plants, demand at each of the four warehouses, and estimated production costs of the new proposed
plants.

Warehous Monthly Production Monthly Production

e Demand Plant Supply cost per unit
(Units) (Units) (Rs.)
Chennai 10,000 Bangalore 15,000 48
Gurgaon 12,000 Lucknow 6,000 50
Mumbai 15,000 Pune 14,000 52
Kolkata 9,000

Estimated production cost per unit(Rs.) at the proposed locations

Coimbatore 53 Vadodara 49

Transportation costs from each plant to each warehouse (Rs. Per unit) are summarized in the following
table.

To Warehouse
Chennai Gurgaon Mumbai Kolkata
From Bangalore 25 55 40 60
 Lucknow 45 30 50 40
Production Pune 46 45 26 56
Plant Coimbatore 27 55 45 62
Vadodara 52 41 30 50

The important question that Hardgrave now faces is this: Which of the new locations to be selected to
locate the production plant.

a) Formulate the problem as per the suitable model.

b) Which location to be selected that will yield the lower cost for the firm in combination with the
existing plants and warehouses.
c) What is the total cost?

7) A manufacturer of a popular brand of detergents has warehouses located at A, B and C which cater to
markets P, Q, R and S. The warehouses A, B and C have capacity of 22 tons, 15 tons and 8 tons
respectively. The requirements of the markets P, Q, R and S and the unit shipping costs (in Rs.) from
warehouse to market are given in the following table

Market
Supply
P Q R S
A 6 3 5 4 22
Wareho

B 5 9 2 7 15
use

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, 2 units from A to R, 8 units from A to S, 15 units from B to R, 7 units
from C to P and 1 unit from C to S.
a) Check and see if the clerk has the feasible schedule.
b) Find the optimal schedule and minimum total transport cost.

8) ABC Limited has three production shops supplying 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:

I II III IV V Supply
A 6 4 4 7 5 100

Shop B 5 6 7 4 8 125
C 3 4 6 3 4 175
Demand 60 80 85 105 70 400

The cost of manufacturing the product at different production shops is

____________________________________________________
 Shop A B C
Variable Cost(Rs) 14 16 15
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Find the optimum quantity to be supplied from each shop to different warehouse at minimum total cost.