Name : ……………………………………………………………

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Roll No. : ……………………………………………..…………..
Invigilator’s Signature : ………………………………………..
CS/MBA (NEW)/SEM-3(FT)/MB-302/2011-12
p:/
2011
OPERATIONS RESEARCH
Time Allotted : 3 Hours Full Marks : 70
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The figures in the margin indicate full marks.
Candidates are required to give their answers in their own words
pap
as far as practicable.

GROUP – A
( Multiple Choice Type Questions )
er.

1. Choose the correct alternatives for any ten of the

following : 10 × 1 = 10

i) If in the simplex algorithm, the basis column of the final

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simplex table contains an artificial variable, the problem

has

a) degenerate solution b) infeasible solution

ut .

c) unbounded solution d) multiple solution.

ii) In an assignment problem involving four workers and

a c.

three jobs, the total number of assignments possible is

a) 4 b) 3

c) 7 d) 12.
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iii) Hungarian method is used in

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a) Transportation problem

b) Assignment problem
c) Simplex problem
p:/
d) Dual simplex problem.
iv) Degeneracy in transportation problems occurs when
a) at optimality, the total cost is 0
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b) in finding an initial solution, a row and a column
requirement are simultaneously satisfied
pap
c) there are two or more filled cells with the same
smallest negative value in a closed path for an
incoming basic variable
d) total supply is greater than total demand
e) total demand is greater than the total supply.
er.

v) A transition probability describes

a) the probability of a success in repeated,

independent trials
wb

b) the probability a system in a particular state now

will be in a specific state next period
c) the probability of reaching an absorbing state
ut .

d) none of these.

vi) The general purpose system simulation language

a) requires programme writing
a c.

b) doesn’t require programme writing

c) requires predefined coding form
d) needs a set of equations to describe a system.
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vii) Which statement of the following is not related to

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Markov process ?

a) State transition matrix

p:/
b) Perfect information

c) Steady-state condition
/q
d) Brand switching problem.

viii) In decision theory, which of the following criterion is not

pap

considered ?

a) Maximax regret criterion

b) Laplace criterion
er.

c) Minimin criterion

d) EMV criterion.
wb

ix) An ISO-profit line represents

a) an infinite number of solutions all of which yield

ut .

the same profit

b) an infinite number of solutions all of which yield

a c.

the same cost

c) an infinite number of optimal solution

d) A boundary of the feasible region.

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x) A transportation problem is a balanced transportation

htt
problem iff

a) total demand and total supply are equal and

p:/
number of sources is equal to the number of

destinations

b) total demand equals to the total supply irrespective

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of the number of sources and destinations
pap
c) number of sources matches with the number of

destinations

d) the corresponding basic feasible solution is to be

degenerate.
er.

xi) In an ( M / M / 1 ) : ( ∞/FIFO ) model, the average

number of customers E ( n ) is given by

wb

"2 "
a) b)
1+ " (1# ")
"2 "
c) d) .
ut .

(1# ") 1+ "

! !

xii) Variables that indicate the distance a target is from the

! !
a c.

level achieved are called

a) goal variables b) target variables

c) deviation variables d) preemptive variables.

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GROUP – B
htt
( Short Answer Type Questions )
Answer any three of the following. 3 × 5 = 15

2. Suppose a media specialist has to decide how to allocate

p:/
advertising in three media vehicles. Let xi be the number of

messages carried in the media, i = 1, 2, 3. The unit costs of a

/q
! Rs. 1000, Rs. 750 and
message in the three media are

Rs. 500 respectively. The total budget available for the

pap
campaign is Rs. 2,00,000 in a year. The first media is a

monthly magazine and it is desired to advertise not more

than one insertion in one issue. At least six messages should

er.

appear in the second media. The number of messages in the

third media should strictly lie between 4 and 8. The expected

effective audience for unit message in the media vehicles is

wb

shown below :

Vehicle Expected effective audience

1 80,000
ut .

2 60,000

3 45,000
a c.

Formulate this problem as an LPP model to determine the

optimum allocation that would maximize total effective

audience.
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3. A firm produces two products — X and Y. Product X sells for

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a net profit of Rs. 80 per unit while the same for Y is Rs. 40

per unit. The goal of the firm is to earn Rs. 900 in the next
p:/
week while the management desires to sell 17 units of X and

15 units of Y. Formulate this problem as a goal progrmming

/q
model.

4. A project consists of four major jobs for which four

pap

contractors have submitted tenders. The tender amounts

quoted in thousands of rupees are given in the following

matrix. Find the assignment which minimizes total cost of

er.

the project. Each contractor has to be assigned one job only.

wb

Jobs
Contractors
J1 J2 J3 J4
ut .

C1 15 29 35 20
! ! ! !

C2 21 27 33 17
!
a c.

C3 17 25 37 15
!

C4 14 31 39 21
!
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5. A company manufactures 30 items per day. The sale of these

htt
items depends on demand, which has the following

distribution :

Sales ( unit ) : 27 28 29 30 31 32
p:/
Probability : 0·10 0·15 0·20 0·35 0·15 0·05

The production cost and sale price of each unit is Rs. 40 and
/q
Rs. 50 respectively. Any unsold product is to be disposed of
pap
at a loss of Rs. 15 per unit. There is a penalty of Rs. 5 per

unit if the demand is not met. Using the following random

numbers estimate total profit/loss for the company for the

next 10 days :
er.

10, 99, 65, 99, 55, 15, 78, 12, 20, 19.
wb

6. Solve the following transportation problem by North-West

Corner Method ( NWCM ) :

Warehouse1 (W1 ) Warehouse2 (W2 ) Warehouse3 (W3 ) Supply (Si )

ut .

Plant1 ( P1 )
!
7 ! 6 !
9 !
20

Plant2 ( P2 ) 5 7 3 28
a c.

Plant3 ( P3 ) 4 5 8 17
!

Demand ( Di ) 21 25 19 65
!
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GROUP – C
htt
( Long Answer Type Questions )
Answer any three of the following. 3 × 15 = 45

7. a) Arrivals at a telephone booth are considered to be

p:/
Poisson with an average of 10 minutes between one

arrival and the next. The length of the phone call is

/q
assumed to be distributed exponentially with mean

3 minutes. (i) What is the probability that a person

pap
arriving at booth will have to wait ? (ii) What is the

average length of the queue that forms from time to

time ? (iii) The telephone department will install a

second booth when convinced that an arrival would

er.

expect to have to wait at least three minutes for the

phone. By how much must the flow of arrivals be

wb

increased in order to justify the second booth ?

b) In a supermarket, the average arrival rate of customers

is 10 every 30 minutes, following Poisson process. The

ut .

average time taken by a cashier to list and calculate the

customer’s purchase is two and a half minutes following

a c.

exponential distribution. What is the probability that

the queue length exceeds six ? What is the expected

time spent by a customer in the system ?

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c) A T.V. mechanic finds that the time spent on his jobs

htt
has an exponential distribution with mean 30 minutes,

if he repairs sets in the order in which they come in. If

the arrival of sets is approximately Poisson with an

p:/
average rate of 10 per eight-hour day, what is the

mechanic’s expected idle time each day ? How many

/q
jobs are ahead of the average set just brought in ?

8. a) A salesman has to visit each of the five cities A, B, C, D

pap

and E. The distances ( in hundred miles ) between the

five cities are as follows :

A B C D E
er.

A — 7 6 8 4
wb

B 7 — 8 5 6

C 6 8 — 9 7
ut .

D 8 5 9 — 8

E 4 6 7 8 —
a c.

If the salesman starts from city A and has to come back

to city A, which route should he select so that the total

distance travelled is minimum ?

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b) Kothari Car Rental company rents car from three

htt
centres, viz., X, Y & Z. Customers return cars to each of

the centres according to the following probabilities. 8

To
p:/
X ( State 1) Y ( State 2 ) Z ( State 3 )
From

X ( State 1 ) 0·0 0·4 0·6

/q
Y ( State 2 ) 0·8 0·0 0·2

Z ( State 3 ) 0·8 0·2 0·0

pap

Kothari Company is planning to build a maintenance

facility at one of the three centres. Which centre would

you recommend for this purpose ? State, why so ?

er.

9. a) A wholesaler of sports goods has an opportunity to buy

5,000 pairs of skiis that have been declared surplus by

wb

the Govt. The wholesaler will pay Rupees 50 per pair

and can obtain Rupees 100 a pair by selling skiis to

retailers. The price is well established, but the

ut .

wholesaler is in doubts as to just how many pairs he

will be able to sell. Any skiis that are left over, he can

sell to discount outlets at Rupees 20 a pair. After a

a c.

careful consideration of the historical data, the

wholesaler assigns probabilities to the demand as

follows :
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Retailer’s Demand Probability

htt
1000 pairs 0·6

3000 pairs 0·3

5000 pairs 0·1

p:/
i) Compute the conditional monetary and expected

monetary values.
/q

ii) Compute the expected profit with a predicting

pap

device

iii) Compute the EVPI.

er.

b) A newspaper boy has the following probabilities of

selling a magazine :

No. of copies sold Probability

wb

10 0·10

11 0·15

12 0·20
ut .

13 0·25

14 0·30
a c.

Cost of a copy is 30 paisa and sale price is 50 paisa. He

cannot return unsold copies. How many copies should

be order ?
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10. a) In a small town with three advocates X, Y and Z, each

htt
advocate knows that some clients switch back and

forth, depending on which advocate is available at the

time the client needs one. There are no new clients in

p:/
the current legal market; however, none of the old

clients are leaving the area. During a slack period, the

/q
three advocates collected data which identified the

clients, each advocate had seen during the preceding

pap

year. Tables given below summarize the results of the

study, and the manner in which clients were gained or

lost respectively. Construct the state-transition matrix

er.

that describes the problem at hand.

Data summary — client activity.

wb

Clients as of Change Clients as of

Advocate
1·1·2005 during year 1·1·2006
ut .

Gain Loss

X 400 75 50 425
a c.

Y 500 50 150 400

Z 500 100 25 575

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Gain-Loss summary :
htt
Client as of Clients as of
Advocate Gains Losses
1·1·2005 1·1·2006

From From From To To To

X Y Z X Y Z
p:/
X 400 0 50 25 0 50 0 425

Y 500 50 0 0 50 0 100 400

Z 500 0 100 0 25 0 0 575

/q
b) An airline company has drawn up a new flight schedule

involving five-flights. To assist in allocating five pilots to

pap

the flights, it has asked them to state their preference

scores by each flight a number out of 1 to 10. The

higher the number, the greater is the preference.

er.

Certain of these flights are unsuitable to some pilots

owing to their domestic reasons. These have been

wb

marked with a ( X ) sign.

Flight Number
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5
A 8 2 X 5 4
ut .

B 10 9 2 8 4
! ! ! ! !
Pilots C 5 4 9 6 X
D 3 6 2 8 7
a c.

E 5 6 10 4 3

What should be the allocation of the pilots to flights in

in

order to meet as many preference as possible ?

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11. a) Three mobile companies Vodafone, Airtel and Aircel are

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the competitors in a city and holding a market share as

50%, 30% and 20% respectively on July 1, 2009. A

p:/
study by marketing research firm disclosed the

following :
/q
Every month Vodafone retains 60% of its customers,
pap

loses 20% to Airtel and 20% to Aircel. Airtel retains 70%

of its customers, loses 20% to Vodafone and 10% to

Aircel. Aircel retains 50% of its customers, loses 30% to

er.

Vodafone and 20% to Airtel.

wb

Assuming that the above brand switching behaviour

does not change,

ut .

i) What market share shall be held by each firm on

July 1, 2010 ?
a c.

ii) What will be the equilibrium market share of each

brand ?
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b) An investor is given the following investment

htt
alternatives and percentage rate of return :

States of Nature ( Market Conditions )

Low Medium High

p:/
Regular shares 7% 10% 15%

Risky shares – 10% 12% 25%

/q
Property – 12% 18% 30%
pap
Over the past 300 days, 150 days have been medium

market conditions and 60 days have had high market

increases. On the basis of these data, state the optimum

investment strategy for investment.

er.

12. a) The research department of HLL has recommended to

the manufacturing department to launch a shampoo of
wb

three different types. The marketing manager has to

decide one of the types of shampoo to be launched
under the following estimated pay-offs for various level
of sales.
ut .

Estimated level of sales in units

Types of shampoo 15000 10000 5000

a c.

Egg 30 10 10

Clinic 40 15 5

Deluxe 55 20 3
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What will be the marketing manager’s decision

htt
depending upon

i) Laplace’s criterion

ii) Regret criterion

p:/
iii) Hurwicz’s criterion ( α = 0·6 ) ?

b) Solve the following by branch and bound method :

/q
Maximize z = 3 x1 + 2 " 5 x2

Subject to x1 + 2 " 5x2 # 20

pap
! 3x1 + 2x2 " 50

where! x1 , x2 are non-negative integers.

!
er.

!
wb
ut .
a c.
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