MODULE-1 ASSIGNMENT-2

An investor has Rs 20 lakhs with her and considers three schemes to invest the money for one year.
The expected returns are 10%, 12% and 15% for the three schemes per year. The third scheme
accepts only up to 10 lakhs. The investor wants to invest more money in scheme 1 than in scheme 2.
The investor assesses the risk associated with the three schemes as 0 units, 10 units and 20 units per
lakh invested and does not want her risk to exceed 500 units.

1. Which of the following is the correct decision variable

a) Amount of money invested in each scheme
b) Amount of revenue obtained from each scheme
c) Amount of risk through investment in each scheme
d) Total amount that can be obtained from the investments (A)
2. How many decision variables are in your formulation? (3)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
3. How many constraints are in your formulation? (4)
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
4. How many greater than or equal to constraints are in your formulation. (To answer this
question you should write your constraints such that the right hand side value is non
negative) (1)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3

Let X1, X2, X3 be the amount in lakhs invested in the three schemes.
The objective is to maximize the total return – Maximize 10X1 + 12X2 + 15X3.
The constraints are
X1 + X2 X3 ≤ 20 (Budget constraint)
X3 ≤ 10 (Limit on third scheme)
X1 ≥ X3 (More money in scheme 1 than in scheme 2)
10X2 + 20X3 ≤ 500 (Risk constraint). Note that risk on scheme 1 is zero)
X1, X2, X3 ≥ 0 (non negativity)

Two tasks have to be completed and require 10 hours and 12 hours of work if one person does the
tasks. If n people do task 1, the time to complete the task becomes 10/n and so on. Similarly if n
people do task 2, the time becomes 12/n and so on. We have 5 people and they have to be assigned
to the two tasks. We cannot assign more than three to task 1. Find the earliest time that both tasks
MOOC-NPTEL: Introduction to Operations Research
Jan-Feb, 2015
are completed if they start at the same time. (Use ideas from the bicycle problem to write your
objective function. At some point you may have to define a variable to represent the reciprocal of
another variable). Formulate an LP problem and answer the following:

5. The final objective function is

a) Maximization problem with one term in the objective function (a)
b) Minimization problem with one term in the objective function
c) Maximization problem with two terms in the objective function
d) Minimization problem with two terms in the objective function
6. The total number of constraints in the final formulation is (c)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4

Let X1 and X2 be the number of people assigned to the two tasks.

X1 + X2 ≤ 5 (limit on number of people)

The times required are 10/X1 and 12/X2. We wish to minimize the maximum of these two. Let u be
the maximum of these two. The objective is to Minimize u subject to u ≥ 10/X1; u ≥ 12/X2. These are
rewritten as X1 ≥ 10/u and X2 ≥ 12/u. Put v = 1/u to get

Minimize 1/v subject to X1 + X2 ≤ 5; X1 ≥ 10v; X2 ≥ 12v. Change the objective function to Maximize v
so that we have an LP formulation. Add X1, X2 ≥ 0.

TV sets are to be transported from three factories to three retail stores. The available quantities are
300, 400 and 500 respectively in the three factories and the requirements are 250, 350 and 500 in
the three stores. They are first transported from the factories to warehouses and then sent to the
retail stores. There are two warehouses and their capacities are 600 and 700 units. The unit costs of
transportation from the factories to warehouses and from the warehouses to retail stores are
known. Formulate an LP and answer the following questions:

7. The objective function (c)

a) Maximizes the total cost of transportation between factories and warehouses and
between warehouses and retail stores
b) Maximizes the total quantity transported between factories and warehouses and
between warehouses and retail stores
c) Minimizes the total cost of transportation between factories and warehouses and
between warehouses and retail stores
d) Minimizes the total quantity transported between factories and warehouses and
between warehouses and retail stores
8. The number of terms in the objective function is (c)
a) 6
b) 8

MOOC-NPTEL: Introduction to Operations Research

Jan-Feb, 2015
 c) 12
d) 18
9. The number of decision variables in the formulation is (c)
a) 8
b) 10
c) 12
d) 18
10. The number of constraints in the formulation is (c)
a) 6
b) 8
c) 10
d) 12

TVs are transported from three factories to two warehouses and from there to three retail stores.
Let Xij be the quantity transported from factory i to warehouse j. There are six variables. Let Yij be the
quantity transported from warehouse j to store k. There are six variables. There are twelve decision
variables.

The objective function minimizes the transportation cost between the factories and warehouses as
well as between warehouses and stores. There are 12 terms in the objective function corresponding
to the 12 decision variables.

There are 3 supply constraints for the factories. There are three demand constraints for the stores.
There are 2 capacity constraints for the 2 warehouses. There are 2 quantity balance constraints for
the two warehouses. There are 10 constraints.

Thousand answer papers have to be totaled in four hours. There are 10 regular teachers, 5 staff and
4 retired teachers who can do the job. Regular teachers can total 20 papers in an hour; staff can do
15 per hour while retired teachers can do 18 per hour. The regular teachers total the papers
correctly 98% of the times while this number is 94% and 96% for staff and retired teachers. We have
to use the services of at least one staff. You can assume that any person can work for a fraction of an
hour also. Formulate a relevant LP problem and answer the following questions.

11. Which of the following is a correct decision variable for this problem (b)
a) Number of answer papers given to teachers 1 to 10
b) Total number of answer papers given to regular teachers
c) Number of papers correctly totaled by regular teachers
d) Number of papers incorrectly totaled by the regular teachers
12. A relevant objective function would be to
a) Maximize the papers totaled by all of them in four hours
b) Minimize the papers totaled by staff and retired teachers
c) Minimize the number of papers correctly totaled by all of them
d) Minimize the number of papers incorrectly totaled by all of them (d)
MOOC-NPTEL: Introduction to Operations Research
Jan-Feb, 2015
 13. The number of decision variables in an efficient formulation is (a)
a) 3
b) 4
c) 9
d) 19
14. The number of constraints in the formulation is (a)
a) 5
b) 10
c) 19
d) 20

Let X1 be the number of answer papers totaled by regular teachers, X2 by staff and X3 by retired
teachers.
The objective is to minimize the total number of incorrectly totaled papers. This would be to
Minimize 2X1 + 6X2 + 4X3.
The constraints are X1 + X2 + X3 = 1000 (number of papers; this can also be a ≥ inequality)
X1 ≤ 800 (capacity of regular teachers, 20 x 4 x 10 = 800)
X2 ≤ 300 (capacity of staff, 15 x 4 x 5 = 300)
X3 ≤ 300 (capacity of staff, 18 x 4 x 4 = 288)
X2 ≥ 75 (capacity of 1 staff)
X1, X2, X3 ≥ 0 (non negativity)

A person is in the business of buying and selling items. He has 10 units in stock and plans for the next
three periods. He can buy the item at the rate of Rs 50, 55 and 58 at the beginning of periods 1, 2
and 3 and can sell them at Rs 60, 64 and 66 at the end of the three periods. He can use the money
earned by selling at the end of the period to buy items at the beginning of the next period. He can
buy a maximum of 200 per period. He can borrow money at the rate of 2% per period at the
beginning of each period. He can borrow a maximum of Rs 8000 per period and he cannot borrow
more than Rs 20000 in total. He has to pay back all the loans with interest at the end of the third
period.

15. What is the correct objective function for this problem? (c)
a) Maximize the total money available at the end of the third period
b) Maximize the total money at the end of the third period less total money borrowed
c) Maximize the total money at the end of the third period less total money paid back
including interest
d) Maximize the number of items sold at the end of the third period
16. How many decision variables are in the formulation (c)
a) 3
b) 6
c) 9
d) 10
17. How many constraints are in the formulation (d)
a) 6
b) 9
MOOC-NPTEL: Introduction to Operations Research
Jan-Feb, 2015
 c) 12
d) 13

Let X1, X2, X3 be the number of items bought at the beginning of the three months. Let Y1 to Y3 be the
number of items sold at the end of three months. Let Z1 to Z3 represent the amount of money
borrowed at the beginning of three months
The constraints are: X1 ≤ 200; 50X1 ≤ Z1; Z1 ≤ 8000.
He sells Y1 and realizes 60Y1. The relevant constraints are Y1 ≤ X1 + 10;
He buys X2 and borrows Z2. The constraints are X2 ≤ 200, Z2 ≤ 8000; 55X2 ≤ 60Y1 + Z2;
He sells Y2 at the end of period 2 and realizes 64Y2. The constraint for Y2 is
Y2 ≤ X1 + 10 – Y1 + X2 (he can also sell items available at the end of period 1).
He buys X3 and borrows Z3. The constraints are X3 ≤ 200; Z3 ≤ 8000 and
58X3 ≤ 60Y1 + Z2 – 55X2 + 64Y2 + Z3 (He can also spend some unused money at the end of periods 1
and 2)
Y3 ≤ X1 + 10 – Y1 + X2 – Y2
There is a limit to the total money borrowed. This is given by Z1 + Z2 + Z3 ≤ 20000. Also X1, X2, X3 ≥ 0.

A food stall sells idlis, dosas and poories. A plate of idli has 2 pieces, a plate of dosa has 1 piece while
a plate of poori has 2 pieces. They also sell a “combo” which has 2 idlis and 2 poories. A kg of batter
costs Rs 60 and contains twelve spoons of batter. Each piece of idli requires 1 spoon of batter and
each dosa requires 1.5 spoons of batter. Each poori piece requires 1 ball of wheat dough and a kg of
wheat dough that costs Rs 60 can make 20 balls of dough. The selling prices of the items are Rs 40,
60, 60 and 90 per plate respectively. The owner has Rs 800 with her and estimates the demand for
the four items (in plates) as 50, 30, 20 and 10 respectively. There is a penalty cost of Rs 10 for any
unmet plate of demand of an item. Idli being the most commonly consumed item, the owner wishes
to meet at least 80% of the demand. Formulate an LP problem and answer the following questions:

18. What is the most suitable objective function for this problem? (b)
a) Maximize the total money earned by sale
b) Maximize the total money earned by sale less the cost of items bought
c) Maximize the total plates made of all the items
d) Minimize the unmet demand
19. How many decision variables are in the formulation (4)
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 8
20. How many constraints are in the formulation (d)
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6

Let X1 to X3 represent the number of plates of idlis, dosas and poories sold and let Y1 be the number
of plates of combo sold. There are 4 decision variables.
MOOC-NPTEL: Introduction to Operations Research
Jan-Feb, 2015
The objective function is to maximize the total money earned by the sale less the cost of items
purchased.

The constraints are on total money available, limit on production quantities for four items and
meeting minimum requirement of idlis. There are 6 constraints.

MOOC-NPTEL: Introduction to Operations Research

Jan-Feb, 2015