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17 views5 pages

Mie312 2019 11

Uploaded by

Michael Chinogara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

2019 Nov/Dec Examinations

Faculty : ENGINEERING

Department : MINING ENGINEERING

Paper Code and Title : OPERATIONS RESEARCH (MIE312)

Duration : 3 Hours

Examiner : Eng. K. DZWITI

Authorised Materials : Calculator

INSTRUCTIONS

1. This paper contains FIVE questions.


2. Answer QUESTION ONE and any other THREE questions.
3. Each question carries a total of 25 marks.
4. Start each question on a new page.
5. This paper comprises 4 printed pages.
6. Where a question contains subdivisions, the mark value of each subdivision is shown
in brackets.
7. Illustrate your answer, where appropriate, with large clearly labelled diagrams.

NB: DO NOT TURN OVER THE QUESTION PAPER OR COMMENCE


WRITING UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO

Page 1 of 5
QUESTION ONE
Explain explicitly with the aid of suitable examples two (2) operations research techniques
that can be applied in business operations to maximize profits and survive competition. [25
marks]

QUESTION TWO
A small construction firm specializes in building and selling single-family houses. The firm
offers two basic types of houses, model A and model B. Model A houses require 4 000 labour
hours, 2 tonnes of stone, and 2 000 board feet of lumber. Model B houses require 10 000
labour hours, 3 tonnes of stone, and 2 000 board feet of lumber. Due to long lead times for
ordering supplies and the scarcity of skilled and semiskilled workers in the area, the firm will
be forced to rely on its present resources for the upcoming building season. It has 400 000
hours of labour, 150 tonnes of stone, and 200 000 board feet of lumber. What mix of model A
and B houses should the firm construct if model A yields a profit of $3 000 per unit and
model B yields $6 000 per unit? Validate your mix using any other approach. Assume that
the firm will be able to sell all the units it builds.
[25 marks]

QUESTION THREE
a) An airline is planning to open a satellite ticket desk in a new shopping plaza, staffed
by one ticket agent. It is estimated that requests for tickets and information will
average fifteen per hour, and requests will have a Poisson distribution. Service time is
assumed to be exponentially distributed. Previous experience with similar satellite
operations suggests that mean service time should average about three minutes per
request.
Determine:
i. System utilization. [2 marks]
ii. Percentage of time the server will be idle. [2 marks]
iii. The expected number of customers waiting to be served. [2 marks]
iv. The average time customers will spend in the system. [2 marks]
v. The probability of zero customers in the system. [2 marks]
vi. The probability of four customers in the system. [3 marks]

b) A local distributor for a national tyre company expects to sell approximately 9 600
steel-belted radial tyres of a certain size and tread design next year. Annual carrying
cost is $16 per tyre, and ordering cost is $75. The distributor operates 288 days a year.
i. What is the EOQ? [3
marks]
ii. How many times per year does the store reorder? [3
marks]
iii. What is the length of an order cycle? [3
marks]

Page 2 of 5
iv. What is the total annual cost if the EOQ quantity is ordered? [3
marks]

QUESTION FOUR
Table 1 contains information related to the major activities of a research project.
Table 1 Research project activities

ACTIVITY PREDECESSOR EXPECTED TIME


(DAYS)
A - 5
C A 8
D C 2
B A 7
E - 3
F E 6
I B,D 10
M F,I 8
G - 1
H G 2
K H 17
END K,M -

Use Table 1 to do the following:


i. Draw a precedence diagram. [10
marks]
ii. Find the critical path. [1
mark]
iii. Determine the expected length of the project. [2
marks]
iv. Explain briefly, two (2) techniques that you will apply to shorten the research project
by 5 days. [12
marks]

Page 3 of 5
QUESTION FIVE
a) Catharsis Pvt Ltd has to supply the following number of items at the end of each
month shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Number of items

Month No. Month No. of items


1 January 100
2 February 200
3 March 300
4 April 400
Total 1000

Production during a month is available for supply at the end of the month. The stock
holding cost per month is $1 per item. The setup cost is $900 per setup and $2 per
item. Find the optimal policy so that total cost may be minimum. [10
marks]

b) Vagabond enterprises has three factories A, B, and C with production capacity 700,
400, and 600 units per week respectively. These units are to be shipped to four depots
D, E, F, and G with requirement of 400, 450, 350, and 500 units per week
respectively. The transportation costs in dollars per unit between factories and depots
are given in Table 3.
Table 3: Transportation cost

Depot
Factory D E F G Capacity
A 4 6 8 6 700
B 3 5 2 5 400
C 3 9 6 5 600
Requirement 400 450 350 500 1700

Determine the minimum transportation cost. [15


marks]

Page 4 of 5
END OF EXAMINATION PAPER

Page 5 of 5

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