UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO LINEAR PROGRAMMING

PART A

1. Define Operations research.

OR is the application of scientific methods to complex problems arising from

operations involving large systems of men, machines, materials and money in
industry, business, government and defences.

2. What are the characteristics of OR?

 Its system orientation

 The use of interdisciplinary

 Applications of scientific method

 Uncovering of new problems

 Improvement in the quality of decisions

3. List out the scientific method available in OR.

 The judgement phase

 The research phase

 The action phase

4. Why operation research is necessity for industry?

Complexity, Scattered responsibility and authority, Uncertainty, Knowledge

explosion.

5. List out the scope of OR.

Industry, Defence, Planning, Agriculture, Public Utilities

6. List out the phases of OR.

 Formulating the problem.

 Constructing a model to represent the system under study.

 Deriving a solution from the model.

 Testing the model and the solution derived from it.

 Establishing controls over the solution.

 Putting the solution to work.

7. What are the limitations of operations research?

 Mathematical models are applicable to only specific categories of problems.

 OR tries to find optimal solution taking all the factors of the problem into
account.

 Bring a new field generally there is a resistance from the employees to the
new proposals.

 Management who has to implement the advised proposals may itself offer a
lot of resistance due to conventional thinking.

8. State some of the applications of OR in marketing.

Product Selection, Competitive strategies, Advertising Strategy.

9. List some of the application of OR in manufacturing.

Inventory Control, Projection Marketing balance, Production Scheduling &

Smoothing.

10. What is linear programming?

Linear programming deals with the optimization of a function of variables

known as objective functions.

LP is mathematical technique which involves the allocation of limited

resources in an optimal manner on the basis of a given criterion of optimality.

11. Write any two situations where L.P.P is applied.

i) The most important function of management is decision making. A large

number of decision problems faced by an executive involve optimum
allocation of scarce resources to various activities with the objective of
increasing profits or decreasing costs or both.

ii) The decision problem becomes complicated when a number of resources

are required to be allocated and there are several activities to perform. The
problem can be well handled by the technique of linear programming.
iii) Applied for choosing the best alternative from a set of feasible alternatives.

iv)To help managers in planning, decision making and to allocate the

resources.

12. State the assumption of Linear Programming technique?

Proportionality, Additively, Continuity, Certainty, Finite Choices.

13. When is an LPP preferred to be solved by graphical method?

If the number of variables in any linear programming problem is only two, one
can use graphical method to solve it.

14. What are the essential characteristics of a LP.

 The objective function is of maximization type.

 All constraints are expressed as equations.

 RHS of each constraints is non-negative & All variables are non-negative

15. Difference between slack, surplus and artificial variables.

Slack Variables: Slack variable represents an unused quaintly of resources; it

is added to less than or equal (<) to type constraints in order to get an equality
constraint.

Surplus Variables: A surplus variable represents the amount by which solution

values exceed a resource. These variables are also called ‘Negative Slack
Variables’. Surplus variables like slack variables carry a zero coefficient in the
objective function. It is added to greater than or equal to (>) type constraints in
order to get an equality constraint.

Artificial Variables: Artificial variables are added to those constraints with

equality (=) and greater than or equal to (>) sign. An Artificial variable is added
to the constraints to get an initial solution to an LP problem. Artificial variables
have no meaning in a physical sense and are not only used as a tool for
generating an initial solution to an LP problem.

16. Define Constraints.

A constraints is a kind of restriction on the total amount of a particular

resource required to carry out the activities at various levels. In a model there
will be many such constraints so these constraints will limit the levels of
achievement of different decision variable.

17. What is adjacent basic feasible solution?

A basic solution to a LPP is called as a basic feasible solution if it satisfies the
nonnegative restriction.

There are two types of basic feasible solutions.

Non –degenerate: all m basic variables are positive and remaining n variables
will be zero.

Degenerate: A basic feasible solution is degenerate if one or more basic

variables are zero.

18. Define degenerate solution in LPP.

In the simplex method, if any of the basis variable has a value zero, then it is
termed degeneracy.

19. Define Solution.

A set of variables [X1, X2,… X n+m] is called a solution to L.P problem if it

satisfies the constraints.

20. Define Feasible Solution

A set of variables [X1, X2,,… X n+m] is called a feasible solution to L.P problem
if it satisfies the constraints as well as non-negativity restrictions.

21. Define optimal basic feasible solution.

It is the basic feasible solution that also optimizes the objective function.

22. Define unbounded solution.

If the value of the objective function can be increased or decreased

indefinitely, the solution is called unbounded solution.

23. What is the utility of artificial variable in LPP?

Any non-negativity variable which is introduced in the constraint in order to

get the initial basic feasible solution is called artificial variable.

24. What is dual of a LPP?

For every LPP there is a unique LPP associated with it involving the same data
and closely related optimal solution. / the original problem is then called the
primal problem while the other is called its dual problem.

25. Define the term infeasible solution in an LPP.

A solution is infeasible if it is meaningless and impractical. In the graphical
solution, this situation is encountered when there is no common feasible area.
In this simplex solution this situation is encountered when optimality is
reached but an artificial variable is in the basis.

27. Write a note on sensitivity analysis.

Sensitivity Analysis which is also known as post-optimality analysis, is done

when there are changes due to unforeseen adverse conditions after getting the
optimal solution to the initial problem. This analysis essentially checks
whether the changes affect the optimal solution or not.

29. Write down the standard form of a LP problem.

Maximize or Minimize Z = C1X1+C2X2+..+Cn Xn

Subject to m constraint

a11x1+a12x2+..+a1jxj+..+amxm (≥= ≤) b1

am1x1+am2x2+..+amjxj+..+amnxm (≥= ≤) bm

in order to find the values of n decision variables X1,X2,… Xn to maximize or

minimize the objective function and the non-negativity restrictions.

X1,X2,Xn≥ 0

30. What are the advantages of Linear Programming methods?

 It helps in attaining the optimum use of productive factors.

 It improves the quality of decisions.

 It also helps in providing better tools for adjustments to meet changing

conditions.

 It highlights the bottlenecks in the production processes.

Unit 2 Linear Programming Extensions

PART A
1. What is a balanced transportation problem?

If the sum of the supplies of all the sources is equal to the sum of the demands
of all the destinations then the problem is termed as balanced transportation
problem.

2. What is an unbalanced transportation problem?

If the total availability from all origins is not equal to the total demand of all
destinations, then it is called unbalanced transportation problem.

The transportation problem is balanced if the total availability is equal to total

demand.

An IBFS can be obtained only for balanced transportation problem.

3. What is degeneracy in transportation problem?

If the number of occupied cells in a maximum transportation is less than m+n-

1 then it is called degeneracy in a Transportation Problem.

4. What are the conditions to be satisfied to perform optimality test?

Optimality test can be conducted to any initial basic feasible solution of a

Transportation problem provided such allocations has exactly m+n-1 non-
negative allocations where m is the number of origins and n is the number of
destinations. MODI, Stepping Stone.

5. How is degeneracy handled in MODI model?

Stepping stone method.

6. List three methods for finding IBFS for a TP.

Northwest Corner, Least Cost, Vogel’s Approximation

7. What are advantages of NWC method?

This method is very effective as it provide step by step solution.

It is very simple to obtain optimum solution through this method.

8. Define feasible solution in TP.

Any set of non negative allocation (Xij > 0) which satisfies the row and column
sum is called a feasible solution.

9. How profit maximization TP can be converted to an equivalent cost minima

TP?
The maximization T.P can be converted into minimization T.P by subtracting
all the element in the given profit matrix from the highest element in that
matrix.

10. Where do you apply assignment model? Give an example.

If the manger has to get the best out of the field staff should be allotted to
which territory in order to maximize the returns?

How to get the best schedule for inbound and outbound transport
combinations where the least crew layover time is an important decision
criterion?

Example : Production Planning, Crew layover time and Travelling Salesman

Problem.

11. Define AP. Give two areas of its application.

The problem of assigning the number of jobs to equal number of facilities

(machines or persons or destinations) at a minimum cost or maximum profit it
is called an assignment problem.

If n jobs have to be assigned to n workers or machines with unit cost or unit

time of performing the job, we can use assignment model to get minimum
cost.

Travelling salesmen problem (i.e) a salesman has to visit a number of cities

not visiting the same city twice and return to the starting place.

12. State the objectives of an assignment problem.

To assign a number of tasks (jobs or origins or sources) to an equal number of

facilities (machines or persons or destinations) at a minimum cost (or
maximum profit).

13. What is unbalanced assignment problem?

If the number of rows is not equal to the number of columns in the cost matrix
of the assignment problem or if the cost matrix of the given assignment
problem is not a square matrix then the given assignment problem is said to
be unbalanced.

14. Explain Hungarian algorithm.

I. Substract the smallest cost element of each row from all the elements in the
row of the given cost matrix see that each row contains atleast one zero.

II. Substract the smallest cost element of each column from all the elements in
the column of the resulting cost matrix obtained by step 1.
III. Assigning the zeros.

IV. Apply optimal test.

V. Cover all the zeros by drawing a minimum number of straight lines.

VI. Determine the smallest cost element not covered by the straight lines.
Substract this smallest cost element from all the uncovered elements and add
this to all those elements which are lying in the intersection of these straight
lines and do not change the remaining elements which lie on the straight lines.

VII. Repeat steps 1 to 6 until an optimum assignment is attained.

15. How do you convert an unbalanced assignment problem into a balanced

assignment problem?

If no.of rows>no.of columns, then add extra one column and set cost as (0), If
no.of columns>no.of rows, then add extra one row and set cost as (0), then the
unbalanced assignment problem is converted into balanced assignment
problem.

16. Differentiate between balanced and unbalanced cases in AP.

If the number of rows (jobs) is equal to the number of columns (operators),

then the problem is termed as balanced assignment problem otherwise an
unbalanced problem.

17. Assignment problem is a special kind of Transportation problem-Justify.

Assignment problem is a special kind of transportation problem in which each

source should have the capacity to fulfil the demand of any of the
destinations.

In other words any operator should be able to perform any job regardless of
his skills although the cost will be more if the job does not match with the
worker’s skill.

18. What is the relation between assignment and transportation problems?

The transportation problem deals with the transportation of a product

manufactured at different plants or factories(supply origins)to a number of
different warehouses(demand destinations).The objective is to satisfy the
destination requirement within the plant capacity at minimum transportation
cost.

Given n facilities and n jobs and given the effectiveness of each facility for
each job, the problem is to assign each facility to one only job so as to
optimize the given measure of effectiveness.
Examples:products to factories ,jobs to machines.

19. How is a travelling salesmen problem different from an assignment

problem?

Travelling Salesmen problem is that the salesman has to visit various cities,
not visiting twice to the same place and return to the starting place by
spending minimum transportation cost.

In travelling salesman problem we cannot choose the element along the

diagonal and this can be avoided by filling the diagonal with infinitely large
elements.

The problem of assigning the number of jobs to equal number of facilities

(machines or persons or destinations) at a minimum cost or maximum profit it
is called an assignment problem.

20. Give a note on travelling Salesmen problem.

Travelling Salesmen problem is that the salesman has to visit various cities,
not visiting twice to the same place and return to the starting place by
spending minimum transportation cost.

In travelling salesman problem we cannot choose the element along the

diagonal and this can be avoided by filling the diagonal with infinitely large
elements.

21. Briefly explain transshipment problem?

Items are supplied from different sources to different destinations. It is

sometimes economical if the shipment passes through some transient nodes
in between the sources and destinations.

Unlike in transportation problem, where shipments are sent directly from a

particular source to a particular destinations in transshipment problem the
objective is to minimize the total cost of shipment and thus the shipment
passes through one or more intermediate nodes before it reaches its desired
destinations.

UNIT 3 DECISION AND GAME THEORIES

PART A

8. What are the basic assumptions of the game?

There are finite numbers of competitors called players.

A list of finite or infinite number of possible course of action is available to

each player.
A game involving n players is called n-person game. In practice two-person
games are of more importance.

9. Define Pure Strategy

If a player known exactly what the other player is going to do, a deterministic
situation is obtained and objective function is to maximize the gain. Therefore
the pure strategy is a decision rule always to select a particular course of
action.

10. What do you mean by mixed strategies?

When maximin not equal to minimax, then pure strategy fails. Therefore each
player with certain probabilistic fixation. This type of strategy is called mixed
strategy.

11. Define payoff in game theory.

The gain resulting from a game is called payoff and when it is presented in the
form of a table it is called payoff matrix.

12. What is value of game?

The value of the game is defined as the expected gain to a player.

13. Differentiate between pure and mixed strategy in game theory.

A strategy is called pure, if one knowns in advance of the play that it is certain
to be adopted irrespective of the strategy of the other may choose. The
optimal strategy mixture for each player may be determined by assigning to
each strategy its probability of being chosen. These strategies are called
mixed strategy.

A pure strategy is a special case of mixed strategy. A player may be able to

choose only ‘n’ pure strategies whereas he had infinite number of mixed
strategies.

14. Define Saddle point

A saddle point is apposition in the payoff matrix where the maximum of row
minima coincides with the minimum of column maxima.

15. Explain zero-sum game

A zero sum game is one in which the sum of payment to all the competitors is
zero for every possible outcome of the game is in a game if the sum of the
points won equals the sum of the points lost.

16. What is two person zero sum game?

A game with two players, where the gain of one player equals the loss to the
other is known as a two person zero sum game. It is also called a rectangular
game because their payoff matrix is in the rectangular form. The
characteristics of such a game are

(i) Only two players participate the game

(ii) Each player has a finite number of strategies to use

8. What are the two types of decisions?

The two types of decisions are

(i) Tactical decision (ii) Strategic decision

9. What are the different types of decision making situations?

Decision making under certainty.

(i) Decision making under uncertainty.

(ii) Decision making under risk.

(iii) Decision making under conflict.

10. What is Expected Monetary Value (EMV)

The conditional value of each event in the payoff table is multiplied by

its probability and the product is summed up.

The resulting number is the EMV for the act.

11. What is Expected Opportunity Loss (EOL)?

The difference between the greater payoff and the actual payoff is

known as opportunity loss.

12. What is Expected Value of Perfect Information (EVPI)?

The expected value with perfect information is the average return in the long
run, if we have perfect information before a decision is to be made.

13. What are the methods which are useful for decision making under

uncertainty.

(a) Maximax criterion (b) Minimax criterion (c) Maximin criterion

(d) Laplace criterion (e) Hurwicz Alpha criterion

UNIT 4 INVENTORY AND REPLACEMENT MODEL

PART A

1. Give different types of replacement policies.

Individual replacement policy and group replacement policy.

2. What are the basic reasons for replacement?

The replacement problems are concerned with the situations that arise when
some items such as men, machines, electric light bulbs etc need replacement
due to their decreased efficiency, failure or breakdown.

3. Distinguish between Breakdown maintenance and Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance

Periodical inspection and service activities which are aimed to detect potential
failures and perform minor adjustments or repairs which will prevent major
operating problems in future.

Breakdown maintenance

It is the repair which is generally done after the equipment breaks down.

4. What is meant by group replacement policy?

Under this policy, we take decisions as to when all the items must be placed,
irrespective of the fact that items have failed or have not failed, with the
provision that, if any items fails before the replacement time it may be
individually replaced.

5. What is meant by individual replacement policy?

Under this policy, an item is replaced immediately after its failure.

6. What are the types of replacement situations?

i)Replacement of items that deteriorate with time.

ii)Replacement of items which do not deteriorate but fail after certain amount
of use.

7. Define Economic Life of an asset

Any asset will have the following cost components

a)Capital recovery cost (average first cost),computed from the first cost
(purchase price) of the asset.
b) Average operating and maintenance cost.

c) Total cost which is the sum of capital recovery cost and average operating
and maintenance cost.

UNIT V QUEUING THEORY AND SIMULATION

PART A

1. Define ‘a queue’.

The flow of customers from a finite or infinite population towards a service

facility is called a queue or waiting line.

2. Explain customer’s behaviour.

Balking: A condition in which a customer may leave the queue because the
queue is too long and he has no time to wait or there is insufficient waiting
Space.

Reneging: This occurs when a waiting customer leaves the queue due to
impatience.

Jockeying: Customers may move from one waiting line to another.

Piorities : In certain applications some customers are served before others

regardless of their order of arrival.

3. What are the basic characteristics of a queuing system?

The basic characteristics of a queuing system are

(i) The input process (arrival pattern) (ii) The service mechanism (service
pattern)(iii) The queue discipline (iv) Customer behaviour

(v) System capacity vi) Number of service channels

4. Explain queuing system.

A queuing system can be described as composed of customers arriving for

service, if it is not immediate, waiting for service and leaving the system after
being serviced. The queue along with the service facility is called a queuing
system.

5. Define Kendal’s notation for representing queuing models.

A queuing model is specified and represented symbolically in the form (a/b/c):

(d/e)

Where a- inter arrival time

b-service mechanism

c-number of service

d-the capacity of the system

e-the queue discipline

6. Define transient and steady state

A system is said to be in a transient state when its operating characteristic are

dependent on time. When the operating characteristics of a system are
independent of time, then it is in a steady state.

7. Explain Queue discipline and its various forms.

(i) FIFO or FCFS - First In First Out or First Come First Served.

(ii) LIFO or LCFS - Last In First Out or Last Come First Served.

(iii) SIRO - Selection for service in random order.

(iv) PIR - Priority in selection

8. What are the basic elements of queuing system?

System consists of the arrival of customers, waiting in queue, and pick up for
service according to certain discipline, actual service and departure of
customer.

9. What is meant by queue discipline?

The manner in which service is provided or a customer is selected for service

is defined as the queue discipline.

10. What are the characteristic of queuing process?

Arrival pattern of customers, service pattern of servers, queue discipline,

system capacity, no. of service channels, no. of service stage.

11. What are the properties of Poisson process?

 The Poisson process is a markov process.

 Sum of two independent poissen processes is a poisson process.

 Difference of two independent poisson processes is not poisson process.

 The inter arrival time of a poisson process has an exponential distribution

with mean 1/λ.

12. Given any two examples of Poisson process?

1. The number of incoming telephone calls received in a particular time

2. The arrival of customer at a bank in a day.

13. What is meant by Maximin and Minimax?

Maximin is maximum of row minima, and Minimax is minimum of column

maxima.

14. Define simulation. Why is it used?

The representation of reality in some physical form or in some form of

mathematical equations may be called as simulation. This is used because it is
satisfied with suboptimal results for decision making.

15. Define random number.

Random number is a number whose probability of occurrence is the same as

that of any other number in the collection.

16. Define pseudo-random number.

Random numbers are called pseudo-random numbers when they are generate
by some deterministic process and they qualify the predetermined statistical
test for randomness.

17. What are the advantages of simulation?

(i) mathematically less complicated and flexible

(ii) modified to suit the changing environments of the real situation

(iii) can be used for training purposes.

18. What are the limitations of simulation?

(i) Quantification of the variables may be difficult.

(ii) Simulation may not yield optimum results.

(iii) Simulation may not always be cheap.

19. What are the uses of simulation?

(i) Inventory problems.

(ii) Queuing problems.

(iii)Training programmers etc