Addis Ababa Science and Technology University

Assignment - System Analysis and Management Techniques

January 2024
Chapter 1. Concepts of System and System Analysis
1. What are system and system analysis?
2. Why system analysis is required in the construction industry? Explain your answer with examples.
3. What are the application areas of resource management techniques? Note: Don’t copy from the
lecture note.
4. What are the necessary steps to follow for successful resource management?

Chapter 2. Linear Programming Problem

1. Make a review from digital sources on the application areas of linear programming model in the
construction industry by supporting them with examples. Note: Don’t copy from the lecture note.
2. Medroc Cement company plans to build a maximum of 11 new stores in Addis Ababa and Nazareth.
The company will build these stores in one of three sizes - a small store, medium store, and large
sized store. The small sized store requires birr 4.125 million to build and 30 employees to operate.
The medium sized store requires birr 8.25 million to build and 15 employees to operate. The large
sized store requires birr 12.375 million to build and 45 employees to operate. The corporation can
dedicate birr 82.5 million in construction capital, and 300 employees to staff the stores. On the
average, the small store nets birr1.2 million annually, the medium store nets birr 2 million annually,
and the large store nets birr 2.6 million annually. If the company wants to maximize revenue,
formulate the problem as a linear programming model.
3. The total cost (fixed + variable cost) of constructing a ground water reservoir is given as a function of
its capacity, A is as follows.
Fixed cost = 20birr
Variable cost:
2 birr per m2 of land for 0<A  10m2
3 birr per m2 of land for 10<A14 m2
4 birr per m2 of land for 14<A19m2
Formulate a linear programming problem to minimize the total cost of construction.
4. A construction site requires a minimum of 10,000 cubic meters of sand and gravel mixture. The
mixture must contain no less than 5,000 cubic meters of sand and no more than 6,000 cubic meters of
gravel. Materials may be obtained from two sites: 30% of sand and 70% gravel from site 1 at a
delivery cost of $5.00 per cubic meter and 60% sand and 40% gravel from site 2 at a delivery cost of
$7.00 per cubic meter.
a) Formulate the problem as a LP model
b) Solve the problem using graphical technique
5. Serawit Advertising Agency, promoting new Brands of Concrete Mixers, wants to get the best
exposure possible for the product within the 1000,000 birr advertising budget ceiling placed upon it.
To do so, the agency needs to decide how much of the budget to spend on each of its two most
effective media: (1) Television spots on Fana Broadcasting during the evening hours and (2) large ads
in the Sunday’s Reporter newspaper. Each television spot costs 30,000 birr; and each newspaper ad

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 costs 12,500 birr. The expected exposure, based on industry ratings is 350,000 viewers for each TV
commercial and 200,000 readers for each newspaper advertisement. The agency director, Mr.
Serawit, knows from experience that it is important to use both media in order to reach the broadest
spectrum of potential customers. He decides that at least 5 but no more than 25 television spots
should be ordered; and that at least 10 newspaper ads should be contracted. How many times should
each of the two media be used to obtain maximum exposure while staying within the budget? Use
linear programming to solve.
6. Consider the structural system shown below, in which wires 1 and 2 can support loads up to 300lb
each; wires 3 and 4 up to 100 lb each; wires 5 and 6 up to 50lb each. Neglect the weight of beams and
wires, and assume weights W1, W2 and W3 at the positions indicated. What is the maximum total
load, W1+W2+W3 that the structure can support?

7. Do sensitivity analysis on the following LPP.

Max. Z = 100x1+300x2 +50x3
subject to
300x1+ 1200x2 +120x3 93000
0.5x1+ x2 + 0.5x3 101
and x1, x2 , x30

Chapter 3. Transportation and Assignment Models

1. What are the basic differences between transportation and assignment models?
2. A cement factory produces Portland cement in 50kg pack. The company ships the packs from the
production facilities to its three warehouses. The packs are distributed directly to four project sites
from the warehouses. The table below shows costs per pack to ship to the four warehouses. Find the
initial feasible solution using: a) Northwest corner method; b) Minimum cost method; c) Vogal’s
Approximation method

To
From project 1 project 2 project 3 project 4 Supply (packs)
Warehouse 1 $8 $6 $10 $9 40
Warehouse 2 $9 $12 $13 $7 50
Warehouse 3 $14 $9 $16 $5 45
Demand (packs) 45 25 30 35

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3. Some Building Brick Company (BBC) has orders for 80 tons of bricks at three locations in Yeka S/C,
Kolfe-Keranio S/C and Nifas Silk Lafto S/C. The requirements in their order are 25 tons, 45 tons, and
10 tons. BBC has two plants. Plant 1 produces 50 and plant 2 produces 30 tons per week. End of
week shipments is to be made given the following delivery cost (in x100birr) per ton. Find the
optimal solution to this TP using MoDI technique.

Plant Sub-city
Yeka Kolefe- Keraniyo Nefas-Silk
1 24 30 40
2 30 40 42

4. A Contractor is organizing the supply of ready-mix concrete to four sites. He estimates that the total
daily requirements of the four sites amount to 24 lorry loads and he finds three suppliers who are able
to meet this demand between them. The separate amounts available from the suppliers are (in lorry
loads) are S1: 4; S2: 8; S3:12 and the quantities needed for the four sites are A: 5 , B: 2, C:10, D:7. In
the price negotiation it was agreed that transport costs will be charged to the contractor in proportion
to mileage incurred. The distances involved are:

It is required for the contractor to determine the minimum total distance to be traveled and
corresponding supply arrangement from each supplier to each site.
a) Formulate the problem as a LPP.
b) Solve it using excel solver.

5. EEPCo has proposed three Micro hydropower plants that supply the electric needs of four major
towns of the country. The associated supply of each plant and demand of each town is given in table
1. The cost of sending 1MWH of electricity from a plant to a town depends on the distance the
electricity must travel. Find an optimal solution using LPP.

To

From Town 1 Town 2 Town 3 Town 4 Supply

(MWH)
Plant 1 $8 $6 $10 $9 35
Plant 2 $9 $12 $13 $7 50
Plant 3 $14 $9 $16 $5 40
Demand 45 20 30 30
(MWH)

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6. Five managers who differ in ability and experience are to be placed in charge of five projects which
are different in type and value. The suitability of each manager for each project is assessed on a
numerical scale with a maximum of twenty points. The results are shown below. To which project
should each manager be assigned in order to obtain the highest total points score for the firm? Find
using LPP.

Project
Manager 1 2 3 4 5
A 18 16 11 19 5
B 14 10 15 8 6
C 9 13 8 8 6
D 15 14 10 12 10
E 11 11 14 10 8

7. The following table shows the performance ratings of teachers out of 100 in teaching various subjects
in a High School in Ghana.

Assign the teachers to the right subjects so as to enhance the quality of education in the school.

Chapter 5 Dynamic Programming

1. What is the application of dynamic programming in the construction industry? Support it with
examples. Note: Don’t copy from the lecture note.
2. What is Bellman’s principle of optimality?
3. Derive the stepwise equations of a four-stage dynamic programming problem using the backward
recursion method.
4. Find the minimum cost of travel from start to End. The Petrol and the hotel costs are given.

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5. The Ethiopian government is planning to implement a mix of four prioritized developmental projects
with 3 million euros obtained from funds. The profits that can be gained by implementing the projects
with 1 to 3 million euros allocated are shown below. What is the mix of projects to develop so that the
return will be maximized?

x Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Project 4

0 0 0 0 0
1 2 5 4 2
2 8 6 4 4
3 9 7 4 5
0 0 0 0 0

6. A total of 6units of water is to be allocated optimally to three users. The allocation is made in discrete
steps of one unit ranging from 0 to 6. With the three users denoted as user 1, user 2 and user 3
respectively. The returns obtained from the users for a given allocation are given in the following
table. Find allocations to the three users so that the total return is maximized.
7. You are asked for an advice to find the mix of development of urban area with proposed projects of
housing, retail, office and hotel areas. The available total area is 7ha. Rental income (in x10,000birr)
is a function of the floor areas allocated to each activity. What is the mix of development that will
maximize the return?

Area Housing Retail Office Hotel

0 0 0 0 0
1 2 6 1 8
2 4 9 1 12
3 6 9 2 20
4 8 10 1 16
5 10 11 15 12
6 12 12 12 10
7 14 13 20 4

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 Chapter 6 Queuing Model
1. What is the application of queuing model in the construction industry? Support it with examples.
2. What is Kindall’s notation ?
3. Explain the multi service model [(M/M/S):/FCFS)] with examples.
4. In the traffic light system, derive that the optimal green time, go is expressed as:
r
go 
1 
Where,  is the traffic intensity and r is the effective red time.
5. The Cycle length at the signalized intersection is 120seconds. The considered approach has the
saturation flow of 3500 vehicles per hour, the green time duration of 65 seconds, and flow rate of 800
vehicles per hour. Analyze the traffic conditions in the vicinity of the intersection. Assume that
M/D/1 queueing system adequately describes the considered intersection approach. Calculate the total
average delay per vehicle using M/D/1 approach.

Chapter 6 Inventory model

1. What is the purpose of inventory model in the construction industry? Note: Don’t copy from the
lecture note.
2. R & B Beverage Company has a soft drink product that has a constant annual demand rate of 3600
cases. A case of the soft drink costs $3. Ordering costs are $20 per order and holding costs are 25% of
the value of the inventory. R & B has 250 working days per year, and the lead time is 5 days. Identify
the following aspects of the inventory policy:
a) Economic order quantity
b) Reorder point
c) Cycle time
d) Total annual cost
3. The demand for a product is normally distributed, but all other EOQ assumptions are met. The annual
demand is 10,000 units, and there are 250 working days per year. The ordering cost is $48 per order
and the holding cost is $6 per unit per year. Sales during the 6-day lead time are normally distributed
with a mean of 240 units and a standard deviation of 80units. A service level of 90% has been
established based on holding costs and stock out costs.
a) How many units should be ordered to minimize cost?
b) How much safety stock should be carried?
c) What is the reorder point?

Chapter 7 Decision Model

1. What are the elements for rational decision making?

2. Why decisions are hard?
3. What is a good decision?
4. A real estate company is planning to construct luxury condominiums on its site. The company has a
capacity to construct up to 250 condominium blocks. The financial success of the project depends
upon the number of condominium blocks to be constructed and the chance event concerning the
demand for the condominiums. The decision problem is to select the number of condominium blocks
to be constructed that will lead to the largest profit given the uncertainty concerning the demand for
the condominiums. The cost and revenue of construction per block are 6000 and 14000 (in
x1000)birr, respectively. Find an optimal decision based on:

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a) Maxmin Criterion
b) Minimax Regret Criterion
c) Maximax Criterion
d) Principle of Insufficient Reasoning

Alternative State of Nature

Actions
Demand
Low (50units) Low (100units) Low (150units)
Build 50 400,000 400,000 400,000
Build 100 100,000 800,000 800,000
Build 150 200,000 500,000 1,200,000