DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

SMA 3252: OPERATION RESEARCH

SECOND YEAR END OF SEMESTER EXAMINATION

DATE: JUNE 2024 TOTAL MARKS: 70

INSTRUCTIONS
Answer QUESTION ONE and any other TWO questions.

Q1.
a) Describe the process of operation research (4 marks)

b) Differentiate three ways to classify operation research models in each give an example (3
marks)

c) Describe how operation research is useful in the following areas:

i) Agriculture
ii) Finance (3 marks)

d)
i) Using a general example describe the key components of a linear programming
problem (5 marks)
ii) Describe two assumptions of a linear programming problem (3 marks)

e) A carpenter earns $5 for the sale of a chair and $6 for the sale of a table. It takes 4 hours to
make a table and 2 hours to make a chair. The carpenter can only work for 16 hours. The
average cost of making chair and table are $5 and $3 respectively. The amount spend is$15.
How many chairs and tables should he make to maximize his sales? (4 marks)
f)
i) state the weak duality theorem (1 mark)
ii) Write the dual of the given primal problem.
Min W=10𝑦1 − 15𝑦2
Subject to
𝑦1 − 4𝑦2 ≥ 3
𝑦1 + 𝑦2 ≥ 5
3𝑦1 − 2𝑦2 = 7
𝑦1, 𝑦2 ≥ 0 (2 marks)
iii) Given the linear programming problem
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑧 = 15𝑦1 + 25𝑦2
Subject to
𝑦1 + 𝑦2 ≤ 450
𝑦2 ≤ 350
4𝑦1 + 5𝑦2 ≤ 2000
𝑦1 ≤ 350
𝑦1, 𝑦2 ≥ 0
Find the range of optimality of 𝑦1, 𝑦2. (3 marks)
Will the optimal basis change when the objective function coefficient of 𝑦1, 𝑦2
change to 17 and 24 respectively? (2 marks)

Q2.
a) The table below shows assignment of workers A, B, C, D and E to jobs 1,2,3,4 and 5.
1 2 3 4 5
A 13 8 16 18 19
B 9 15 24 9 12
C 12 9 4 4 4
D 6 12 10 8 13
E 15 17 18 12 20

i) Describe the type of assignment problem above (2 marks)

ii) Determine the optimal assignment ( 6 marks)
iii) Determine the cost of the jobs. ( 2 marks)

b)
i) write the given general linear programming problem into standard form
Min Z = 𝑥1 − 3𝑥2 + 2𝑥3

Subject to;
3𝑥1 − 𝑥2 + 2𝑥3 ≤ 7
-2𝑥1 + 4𝑥2 ≤ 12
 -4𝑥1 + 3𝑥2 + 8𝑥3 ≤ 10
𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , 𝑥3 ≥ 0 (3 marks)

ii) Using simplex algorithm find the optimal solution and value to the LPP
Min Z= -5X1 -3X2 -2X3
Subject to X1+2X2+X3 <= 430
2X1 + 3X2 <= 460
X2 +4X3 <= 420
X1, X2, X3> 0 (7 marks)

Q3. 𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑊 = 60𝑦1 + 30𝑦2 + 20𝑦3

Subject to
8𝑦1 + 6𝑦2 + 𝑦3 ≤ 48
4𝑦1 + 2𝑦2 + 1.5𝑦3 ≤ 20
2𝑦1 + 1.5𝑦2 + 0.5𝑦3 ≤ 8
𝑦1 , 𝑦2 , 𝑦3 ≥ 0.
Given that 𝑦1 , 𝑦2 , 𝑦3 are the basic variables in the final optimal table
a) Give
i) 𝐶𝐵𝑉 A vector representing objective function coefficient for the basic variables
in the optimal table.
ii) 𝐶𝑁𝐵𝑉 A vector representing the objective function coefficient for the non-basic
variables in the optimal table.
iii) Vectors𝑎𝑗 ; is the column in the constraints for the variable 𝑥𝑗 in the initial table.
iv) Matrix B whose jth column is the column in the constraints for the basic
variables 𝑥𝑗 in the initial table
v) Matrix NB whose jth column is the column in the constraints for the non-basic
variable 𝑥𝑗 in the initial table. (5 marks)

b) Using the values in (a) above, regenerate the final optimal table. (6 marks)
c) The profit of the first product dropped to 30 due to saturation of the market. What is the
effect on the optimal solution, calculate the range of optimality. (3 marks)
d) What’s the effect of adding new constraint i) 𝑦1 + 𝑦2 + 𝑦3 ≤ 11 ii) 𝑦2 ≥ 2 (3 marks)
e) Suppose a new product is added into the system, its resource consumption and profit given
1
below. What is the effect? 𝑦4 = 12 𝑎4 = 1 (3 marks)
1
Q4.
a) Use Big M method to solve the LPP
𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑊 = −4𝑥1 − 6𝑥2
Subject to
3𝑥1 + 2𝑥2 ≤ 30
−𝑥1 − 𝑥2 ≤ −3
2𝑥1 + 3𝑥2 ≤ 24
𝑥1 , 𝑥2 ≥ 0 (6 marks)

b) Given the transportation problem below

1 2 3 4 Supply
A 21 16 25 13 11
B 17 18 14 23 13
C 32 17 18 41 19
Demand 6 10 12 15 43

i) Form a linear programming problem (4 marks)

ii) Using the least cost cell method find the initial feasible solution. (5marks)
iii) Test for optimality and find the optimum cost (5 marks)

Q5. A company manufactures 200 units of a product. Depending on the conditions and amount
of resources available, the products produced has been varying.

Productio 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204
n per day

probability 0.05 0.09 0.12 0.14 0.2 0.15 0.11 0.08 0.06

The finished products are finally transported in a specially designed truck

that can accommodate only 200 units. Using the following random numbers
82 89 78 24 53 61 18 45 04 23 50 77 27 54 10
Simulate units produced, transported and waiting in the factory.
i) What will be the average number of units waiting in the factory?
ii) What will be the number of empty spaces in the track? (20 marks)
Q6.
a) A self-service stores employee’s one cashier at its corner. Nine customers arrive on an
average every 5 minutes while cashier can serve 10 customers in 5 minutes. Assuming
Poisson distribution for arrival rate and exponential distribution for service rate,
Find
i) Average number of customers in the system
ii) Average time a customer spends in the system
iii) Average queue length. (8 marks)

b) The arrivals at an ATM booth are assumed to be exponentially distributed. The arrival 4
per hour and the service rate is 12 per hour.
Determine:
i) Average number of customers in the system
ii) Average number of customer waiting to be served or average queue length
iii) Average time a customer spends system
iv) Average waiting time of a customer before being served. (12 marks)