MicroLink Information Technology and Business College

Master of Business Administration

Operations Research Assignment I
Date: 08/10/2018
Submission Date:

Attempt each of the following questions and show all the necessary steps as is required.

1. Visit any Tiles and /or Brick Factory anywhere and identify at least three products that it
produces and sells, and at least three resources it uses to produce the products. Moreover,
determine the quantity of each resources available each week and the quantity of each resource
that each unit of a product requires. Obtain also a data pertaining the per unit production cost
and profit of each product and develop the possible minimization and maximization linear
programming models.
2. A doctor tells a sick freshman to add bananas and oranges to his diet for Vitamin A, Vitamin
B, and Vitamin C. A pound of bananas contributes 8 grams of Vitamin A, 6 grams of Vitamin
B, and 2 grams of Vitamin C, while a pound of oranges contributes 2 grams of Vitamin A and
6 grams of Vitamin B. A pound of bananas costs $3.5 and a pound of oranges costs $5.4. The
student has to meet a minimum requirement of 23 grams of Vitamin A, 37 grams of Vitamin
B, and 6 grams of Vitamin C. He should avoid taking more than 50 grams of Vitamin A and
70 grams of Vitamin B to avoid side effects such as nausea.
a. Formulate a linear programming problem to help the poor freshman choose the ideal fruit
mix for recovery.
3. A junior student earns $20,000 during her summer internship. Since she plans to pursue her
graduate study next year, she wants to invest all her earnings in an annual tax saver scheme
and a non-tax saver plan. The tax saver plan yields a return of 8% with a risk score of 3 and a
non-tax saver plan yields 10% with a risk score of 5. To avail the tax exemption, the student
has to invest at least 50% of her investment in a tax saver scheme. A finance professor advises
the student to keep the average risk score of the total investment no higher than 3.6.
Formulate a linear programming model to maximize the return on investment of the junior’s
earnings.
4. A carpenter makes tables and chairs from wood and fiber. The store has 50 units of wood and
40 units of fiber. Each table requires 10 units of wood and 4 units of fiber, whereas each chair
 requires 6 units of fiber and 4 units of wood. The store has to use a minimum of 20 units of
fiber. The demand for tables is no more than 2. Each table is sold along with at least two chairs.
A table and a chair earn $300 and $200 in profit, respectively.
Formulate a linear programming model for this problem with an appropriate objective function.
5. The Pinewood Furniture Company produces chairs and tables from two resources—labor and
wood. The company has 80 hours of labor and 36 board-ft. of wood available each day.
Demand for chairs is limited to 6 per day. Each chair requires 8 hours of labor and 2 board-ft.
of wood, whereas a table requires 10 hours of labor and 6 board-ft. of wood. The profit derived
from each chair is $400 and from each table, $100. The company wants to determine the
number of chairs and tables to produce each day in order to maximize profit.
i. Formulate a linear programming model for this problem.
ii. Solve this model by using graphical analysis.
iii. Solve the problem using the simplex algorism.
iv. How much labor and wood will be unused if the optimal numbers of chairs and tables
are produced?
v. Determine the range of optimality for each of the objective function coefficients using
the graphical method and interpret it.
vi. Determine the range of optimality for each of the right hand side values of the constraint
functions using the simplex method and interpret it.
vii. Explain the effect on the optimal solution of changing the profit on a table from $100
to $500.
6. The Crumb and Custard Bakery makes coffee cakes and Danish pastries in large pans. The
main ingredients are flour and sugar. There are 25 pounds of flour and 16 pounds of sugar
available, and the demand for coffee cakes is 5. Five pounds of flour and 2 pounds of sugar are
required to make a pan of coffee cakes, and 5 pounds of flour and 4 pounds of sugar are
required to make a pan of Danish. A pan of coffee cakes has a profit of $1, and a pan of Danish
has a profit of $5. Determine the number of pans of cakes and Danish to produce each day so
that profit will be maximized.
a. Formulate a linear programming model for this problem.
b. Solve this model by using graphical analysis.
7. Kelson Sporting Equipment, Inc., makes two different types of baseball gloves: a regular
model and a catcher’s model. The firm has 900 hours of production time available in
its cutting and sewing department, 300 hours available in its finishing department, and
100 hours available in its packaging and shipping department. The production time
requirements and the profit contribution per glove are given in the following table:

Production Time in the department of:

Model Cutting and Finishing Packing and Profit per glove
Sewing Shipping
Regular model 1 1/2 1/8 $5
Cacher’s Model 3/2 1/3 1/4 $8

Assuming that the company is interested in maximizing the total profit contribution, answer
the following:
a. What is the linear programming model for this problem?
b. Find the optimal solution using the graphical solution procedure. How many gloves of
each model should Kelson manufacture?
c. Determine the range of optimality for each of the objective functions coefficients
graphically or using the simplex method and interpret the result.
d. What is the total profit contribution Kelson can earn with the given production
quantities?
e. How many hours of production time will be scheduled in each department?
f. What is the slack time in each department?