MAT1200 Operations Research 1, S2-2016

Assignment 3
Due date: Friday 9 September 2016
Weight 12% Total Marks: 100
Assignment 3 is based on the material from modules 6 and 7. Full working must be shown,
and reasons provided to justify your answers. See the Guidelines provided at the end of
this assignment for further details.
Submit your assignment electronically as one (1) PDF file via the link (Assignment 3 submission) available on study desk before the deadline.
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the maximum Assignment Mark, for each University Business Day or part day that the
Assignment is late. An Assignment submitted more than ten University Business Days
after the deadline will have a Mark of zero recorded for that Assignment.

Question 1.

[40 marks]

The MythCo Toy Company manufactures and distributes a wide range of TV merchandise. Currently the company is experiencing some capacity problems in the product and
distribution of their very successful Mythbuster figurine lines.
Two figurines, Jamie and Adam, are currently produced and sold in a variety of packaged
combinations. The table below shows the times required in Construction, Assembly and
Packaging stages for the three product combinations, and their respective profits.
Product
Adam Figurine
Jamie Figurine
Action Pack
(Contains Adam and Jamie)

Time Required (in minutes)

Construction Assembly Packaging
8
5
2
8
5
3
12

12

Profit
($ per figurine)
10
12

16

Currently 10 hours are available for construction, 8 hours are available for assembly, and
4.5 hours are available for packaging for each day. Also, the production of Jamie Figurines
is restricted to 55 per day due to Berets availability.
MythCo wishes to maximize its profit, and believes that all of its products can be sold at
the current prices.
The problem of maximizing MythCos profit can be expressed as:
Maximize z = 10x1 + 12x2 + 16x3
s.t.
8x1 + 8x2 + 12x3 600
(Construction)
5x1 + 5x2 + 12x3 480
(Assembly)
2x1 + 3x2 + 4x3 270
(Packaging)
x2 + x3 55 (Number of Berets)
x1 , x2 , x3 0
where x1 , x2 , x3 are the number of Adam, Jamie, and Action sets respectively.
Solving this L.P. using LINDO produces the following output:
LP OPTIMUM FOUND AT STEP

OBJECTIVE FUNCTION VALUE

1)
VARIABLE
X1
X2
X3

860.0000
VALUE
20.000000
55.000000
0.000000

REDUCED COST
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
2

ROW
2)
3)
4)
5)

SLACK OR SURPLUS
0.000000
105.000000
65.000000
0.000000

NO. ITERATIONS=

DUAL PRICES
1.250000
0.000000
0.000000
2.000000

RANGES IN WHICH THE BASIS IS UNCHANGED:

VARIABLE
X1
X2
X3

ROW
2
3
4
5

CURRENT
COEF
10.000000
12.000000
16.000000

OBJ COEFFICIENT RANGES

ALLOWABLE
ALLOWABLE
INCREASE
DECREASE
2.000000
2.000000
INFINITY
1.000000
1.000000
INFINITY

CURRENT
RHS
600.000000
480.000000
270.000000
55.000000

RIGHTHAND SIDE RANGES

ALLOWABLE
ALLOWABLE
INCREASE
DECREASE
168.000000
160.000000
INFINITY
105.000000
INFINITY
65.000000
20.000000
55.000000

THE TABLEAU
ROW (BASIS)
1 ART
2
X1
3 SLK
3
4 SLK
4
5
X2

ROW
1
2
3
4
5

SLK
5
2.000
-1.000
0.000
-1.000
1.000

X1
0.000
1.000
0.000
0.000
0.000

X2
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
1.000

860.000
20.000
105.000
65.000
55.000

X3
1.000
0.500
4.500
0.000
1.000

SLK
2
1.250
0.125
-0.625
-0.250
0.000

SLK
3
0.000
0.000
1.000
0.000
0.000

SLK
4
0.000
0.000
0.000
1.000
0.000

Note the final tableau can written in the following familiar format:
cj

10

12

16

cB

xB

x1

x2

x3

s1

s2

s3

s4

10

x1

1
2

1
8

20

s2

9
2

58

105

s3

14

65

12

x2

55

zj

10

12

17

5
4

zj cj

5
4

860

Note: The row index (and hence the slack variable numbering) in the Lindo output is
increased by 1.
The following parts of this exercise should be answered by using the Lindo output above
(including the sensitivity analysis), and not by modifying and running the problem through
Lindo (or equivalent software or websolver).
Note: Consider any changes in to the original problem formulation independently in parts
(b)(f).
(a) How many of each product should MythCo produce each day? What is assumed in (6 marks)
giving this answer?
Remember to state the solution to this problem in plain English so it makes sense
when provided to the MythCos management staff.
(b) Is there spare capacity in any of the production stages or Beret availability ? Explain (4 marks)
your answer.
(c) By how much would the profit on an Action pack have to increase to make its pro- (2 marks)
duction worthwhile?
(d) Tomorrow the machine used in construction stage will be unavailable for part of the (9 marks)
day, so that only 8 hours (480 minutes) of time will be available in the construction
stage of production.
How will the closure change MythCos profit?
How many of each product should MythCo now produce?
(e) A new figurine of Buster is being considered, but it would require 10 minutes for (9 marks)
Construction, 7 minutes for Assembly and 3 minutes for Packaging. No Beret is
required for the proposed figurine.
How much profit would be needed on the Buster figurine to make its production
worthwhile?
(f) If at most 45 Jamie figurines must be produced each day, how should MythCo modify (10 marks)
their production plan?
4

Question 2.

[40 marks]

The MythCo Toy Company has signed a contract to supply its hugely successful replica
Archimedes Death Rays to two customers A and B for the next 3 months.
The requirements for each customer are given in the following Table.
Customer

September

October

November

30

20

20

25

20

10

MythCo can produce 40 Death Rays per month at a cost of $200 per unit on regular time
and an additional 10 Death Rays per month on overtime at a cost of $240 per unit. They
can store units at a cost of $20 per unit per month.
The contract allows the company to fall short of its supply commitment to customer A in
September and October but this incurs a penalty cost of $10 per unit per month and they
are only willing to wait one month at most for the delivery of the replica units.
No shortages are allowed for customer B and their demands must be satisfied on the months
specified.
MythCo wishes to determine the optimal production schedule that will minimize the total
cost of production, storage and shortages.
(a) Determine the optimal production schedule that will minimize the total cost of pro- (30 marks)
duction, storage and shortages.
(Suggestion: Start by defining the supply and demand points and forming a cost table.
Fill in the cost table completely by assigning a very high cost to any demand that
cannot be met from a supply point.)
Use Vogels Method to find your initial feasible solution.
(b) MythCo has just found out that there will be no overtime available in September due (10 marks)
to labor shortages.
How should the company alter their production plan to accommodate this change?

Question 3.

[20 marks]

Jamie is trying to decide how best to assign Tory, Grant, and Cary to manage four projects
that need doing for the show. The time required to complete each of the projects (in hours)
is shown in the table below if Tory, Grant, or Cary manage the project.
Project
Project A Project B Project C Project D
Worker
Tory
17
14
19
16
Grant
Cary

21

18

16

12

15

13

15

16

(a) Jamie decides that, to avoid any conflict, only one team member will manage each (10 marks)
project. There will be no cost in terms of time incurred if a project is not completed.
Determine the assignment which minimizes the total time using the Hungarian method.
List this minimum time. Which project is not completed?
(b) Suppose that Jamie changes his mind and decides that all projects need to be com- (10 marks)
pleted. To achieve this he will allow team members to work on up to two projects.
Determine how this affects the assignment of the team members.
Which team member should be allocated to manage each project and what is the
minimum total time.
[Total:
100
marks]

Assignment Criteria
Question 1.
1. Sensitivity analysis
Analysis uses the provided current solution/output and not found from
modifying and running the original LP problem through Lindo
(or equivalent software or websolver).
Solution for parts (a)-(c) is correctly interpreted from output.
Analysis for parts (d)-(f) is completed by hand with full working shown and is
correct. You may use the information provided in the output and in the final
tableau for part (d).
2. For each part the answer is given in plain english and makes sense.

Question 2.
1. Formulate problem as a Transportation Problem
Problem is correctly balanced,
All appropriate supply and demand points are given and are correct;
The costs are correct in the Tableau;
For (b) the modification of the formulation in (a) is valid.
2. Solution (by hand)
Feasible solution is correctly found using Vogels approximation method.
All required Tableaux are given and are correct
Optimality is tested correctly using either the Stepping Stone or UV method.
All zij are given and are correct.
Transportation plan is correct.
3. Transportation plan (and the associated cost) is given in plain english and makes
sense.

Question 3.
1. Formulate the problem as an assignment problem
Problem is correctly balanced,
The costs are correct in the Tableau,
For (b) the modification of the formulation in (a) is valid.
2. Solution (by hand)
Hungarian method is correctly used,
Konigs Theorem is used correctly to test optimality,
New feasible solution obtained if current solution is not optimal,
Assignment of workers is correct,
Associated cost is given and is correct
3. Assignment of workers (and the associated cost) is clearly explained in plain english.