OR- Self exercise questions for MBA regular students

1. ABC private limited company is engaged in the production of power and traction
transformers. Both of these categories of transformers pass through three basic processes:
core preparation, core to coil assembly, and vapor phase drying. A power transformer yields
a contribution of Birr 50,000 and traction transformer contributes Birr 10,000. The time
required in the production of these two products in terms of hours for each of the processes is
as follows.
Power transformer Traction Transformer
Core preparation 75 15
Core to Coil Assembly 160 30
Vapor Phase Drying 45 10

If the capacities available are 1000, 1500, and 750 machine hours in each processes respectively
Required
Formulate the problem as LP model of ABC private limited company.
2. Supermarket store chain has hired an advertising firm to determine the types and amount of
advertising it should have for its stores. The three types of advertising available are radio and
television commercials, and newspapers advertisements. The retail chain desires to know the
number of each type of advertisement it should purchase in order to maximize exposure. It is
estimated that each ad or commercial will reach the following potential audience and cost the
following amount.

Exposure

Type of Advertisement (people /ad or commercial) Cost

Television commercial 20,000 Birr 15,000
Radio commercial 12,000 6,000
Newspaper advertisement 9,000 4,000

The company must consider the following resource constraints.

1. The budget limit for advertising is Birr 100,000
2. The television station has time available for 4 commercials.
3. The radio station has time available for 10 commercials.
4. The newspaper has space available for 7 ads.
5. The advertising agency has time and staff available for producing no more than a total of
15 commercials and/or ads.
Required
Formulate the problem as LP of the company.

3. The manager of a department store in Adama is attempting to decide on the types and
amounts of advertising the store should use. He has invited representatives from the local

1
 radio station, television station, and newspaper to make presentations in which they describe
their audiences.
a. The television station representative indicates that a TV commercial, which costs Birr 15,000,
would reach 25,000 potential customers. The breakdown of the audience is as follows.

Male Female

Old 5,000 5,000

Young 5,000 10,000

b. The news paper representative claims to be able to provide an audience of 10,000 potential
customers at a cost of Birr 4000 per day. The breakdown of the audience is as follows.

Male Female

Old 4,000 3,000

Young 2,000 1,000

c. The radio station representative says that the audience for one of the station’s commercials,
which costs Birr 6000, is 15,000 customers. The breakdown of the audience is as follows.

Male Female

Old 1,500 1,500

Young 4,500 7,500

The store has the following advertising policy:

a. Use at least twice as many radio commercials as newspaper ads.
b. Reach at least 100,000 customers
c. Reach at least twice as many young people as old people
d. Make sure that at least 30% of the audience is women.
Available space limits the number newspaper ads to 7. The store wants to know the optimal
number of each type of advertising to purchase to minimize total cost.

Required:
Formulate appropriate linear programming model.

4. An electronic company produces three types of parts for automatic machines. It purchases
casting of the parts from the local foundry and then finishes parts on drilling, shaping and
polishing machines.

2
The selling prices of parts A, B, and C respectively are Birr8, 10, 14. All parts made can be sold.
Casting for parts A, B and C respectively costs Birr 5, 6 and 10. The shop possesses only one of
each type of machine. Costs per hour to run each of the three machines are Birr 20 for drilling,
30 for shaping, and 30 for polishing. The capacities (parts per hour) for each part on each
machine are shown in the following table:

Machine Capacity per hour

Part A Part B Part C

Drilling 25 40 25
Shaping 25 20 20
Polishing 40 30 40

The management of the shop wants to know how many parts of each type it should produce per
hour in order to maximize profit for an hour’s run.

Required:
a. Formulate appropriate linear programming model.

5. A transport company has two types of trucks, Type A and Type B. Type A has a refrigerated
capacity of and a non-refrigerated capacity of while Type B has the same overall
volume with equal sections for refrigerated and non-refrigerated stock. A grocer needs to hire
trucks for the transport of of refrigerated stock and of non-refrigerated stock.
The cost per kilometer of a Type A is 40 for Type B.
Required
a. Formulate the LP model of the company
b. Determine the number of trucks of each type which the grocer should rent to achieve the
minimum total cost. (Use graphical approach)
6. A coffee packer blends Brazilian coffee and Ethiopian coffee to prepare two products, super
and deluxe brands. Each kilogram of super coffee contains 0.5 kg of Brazilian coffee and 0.5
kg of Ethiopian coffee, whereas each kilogram of deluxe coffee contains 0.25 kg of Brazilian
coffee and 0.75 kg of Ethiopian coffee. The packer has 120kg of Brazilian coffee and 160kg
of Ethiopian coffee on hand. If the profit one each kilogram of super coffee is 22 cents and
the profit on each kilogram of Deluxe coffee is 30 cents,
Required
a. Formulate the LP model
b. Determine number of kilograms of each type of coffee to be blended in order to
maximise profits. ( Use graphic approach)