Get premium membership and access revision papers, questions with answers as well as video lessons.
Operations Research Question Paper
Operations Research
Course:Bachelor Of Science In Information Technology
Institution: Masinde Muliro University Of Science And Technology question papers
Exam Year:2010
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 2207: OPERATIONS RESEARCH
DATE: DECEMBER 2010 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer question ONE and any other TWO questions
QUESTION ONE
a) Explain any three situations where O.R techniques will be appropriate, suggesting O.R models that
may be used (6 marks)
b) What is degeneracy in Transportation Problems? How is it resolved? (3 marks)
c) Explain forward and backward planning as used in Network Analysis, using appropriate examples
(4 marks)
d) How does the sequencing technique help a manager in any organization(suggest two ways)
(2 marks)
e) Explain how you would sequence three jobs on m machines (4 marks)
f) State any two advantages and any two disadvantages of having inventories for an organization
(4 marks)
g) The following formulated Linear Programming model is provided
Max Z = x1 + 2x2 + 3x3
Subject to
2x1 + x2 + x3 = 1
3x1 + 4x2 + 4x3 = 4
5x1 + 7x2 + 4x3 = 2
x1, x2, x3, = 0
i. Using Simplex Method give the initial tableau (4 marks)
ii. From this initial tableau state the initial basic solution (1 mark)
iii. Indicate the leaving and entering variables at this stage (2 marks)
QUESTION TWO
a) What is an “unbalanced” Assignment Problem and how is it resolved? (2 marks)
a) A project consists of four major jobs for which four contractors have submitted tenders. The tender amounts quoted in thousands of shillings are given in the matrix below. Find the assignment that minimizes the total cost of the project. Each contractor has to be assigned only one job.
Job
Contractor A B C D
I 10 24 30 15
II 16 22 28 12
III 12 20 32 10
IV 9 26 34 16 (9 Marks)
b) Explain the four queuing theory service disciplines (4 Marks)
c) Discuss the terms Balking, Reneging, Jockeying as they relate to Queuing Theory (3 marks)
d) Write short notes on M/M/1 (8 /FCFS) queue and its applications. (2 marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) The arrival and service times of customers are known to have the following distributions. Simulate
this queuing system for 10 periods by using the following random numbers and calculate mean waiting
time and mean queue length.
Inter-arrival time (min) Probability Service time (min) Probability
5 0.15 7 0.10
6 0.35 8 0.35
7 0.40 9 0.45
8 0.10 10 0.10
Random numbers for arrivals 36, 60, 82, 14, 14, 62, 62, 10, 55, 14
Random numbers for services 34, 35, 31, 62, 48, 73, 88, 70, 19, 40 (10 marks)
3
b) Determine an initial basic feasible solution to the following transportation problem using any of the
three methods you are familiar with. (Costs are in K£)
To destinations
Sources W1 W2 W3 W4 W4 W5
A 3 4 6 8 9 20
B 2 10 1 5 8 30
C 7 11 20 40 3 15
D 2 1 9 14 16 13
Demand 40 6 8 18 6
(10 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) The table below provides cost and time estimates of seven activities of a project.
Time estimates (weeks) Direct cost estimates in Kshs. “000”
Activity (i-j) Normal Crash Normal Crash
1 – 2 2 1 10 15
1 – 3 8 5 15 21
2 – 4 4 3 20 24
3 – 4 1 1 7 7
3 – 5 2 1 8 15
4 – 6 5 3 10 16
5 – 6 6 2 12 36
i. Draw the project network corresponding to normal time (3 Marks)
ii. Determine the critical path and normal duration and normal cost of the project (6 Marks)
iii. Crash the activities so that the project completion time reduces to 12 weeks with minimum
additional cost (7 Marks).
b) What would you consider to be the main difficulties encountered with trying to formulate and
implement a network analysis approach in a practical management situation (4 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) Solve the game whose pay off matrix is given by
B
A 5 2
3 4
4
i. By algebraic method (7 Marks)
ii. Calculate the value of the game (4 Marks)
b) Operations Research models can be classified using various ways of categorization, classification
by structure being one of them. Discuss any three types under this category (9 Marks)
More Question Papers