Exam 1: Introduction

Decision alternatives

Consider a department store that must make weekly shipments of a certain product from two different warehouses to four different stores. a.How could a quantitative approach to decision making be used to solve this problem? b.What would be the uncontrollable inputs for which data must be gathered? c.What would be the decision variables of the mathematical model? the objective function? the constraints? d.Is the model deterministic or stochastic? e.Suggest assumptions that could be made to simplify the model.

When the value of the output cannot be determined even if the value of the controllable input is known,the model is

Which of the following is not one of the commonly used names for the body of knowledge involving quantitative approaches to decision-making?

The quantitative analysis approach requires

An author has received an advance against royalties of $10,000.The royalty rate is $1.00 for every book sold in the United States,and $1.35 for every book sold outside the United States.Define variables for this problem and write an expression that could be used to calculate the number of books to be sold to cover the advance.

A university schedules summer school courses based on anticipated enrollment.The cost for faculty compensation,laboratories,student services,and allocated overhead for a computer class is $8500.If students pay $420 to enroll in the course,how large would enrollment have to be for the university to break even?

Problem definition

Zipco Printing operates a shop that has five printing machines.The machines differ in their capacities to perform various printing operations due to differences in the machines' designs and operator skill levels.At the start of the workday there are five printing jobs to schedule.The manager must decide what the job-machine assignments should be. a.How could a quantitative approach to decision making be used to solve this problem? b.What would be the uncontrollable inputs for which data must be collected? c.Define the decision variables, objective function, and constraints to appear in the mathematical model. d.Is the model deterministic or stochastic? e.Suggest some simplifying assumptions for this problem.

The value of any model is that it enables the user to make inferences about the real situation.

In a multicriteria decision problem

To establish a driver education school,organizers must decide how many cars,instructors,and students to have.Costs are estimated as follows.Annual fixed costs to operate the school are $30,000.The annual cost per car is $3000.The cost per instructor is $11,000 and one instructor is needed for each car.Tuition for each student is $350.Let x be the number of cars and y be the number of students. a.Write an expression for total cost. b.Write an expression for total revenue. c.Write an expression for total profit. d.The school offers the course eight times each year. Each time the course is offered, there are two sessions. If they decide to operate five cars, and if four students can be assigned to each car, will they break even?

A company seeks to maximize profit subject to limited availability of man-hours.Man-hours is a controllable input.

A physical model that does not have the same physical appearance as the object being modeled is

Uncontrollable inputs are the decision variables for a model.

All uncontrollable inputs or data must be specified before we can analyze the model and recommend a decision or solution for the problem.

The process of decision making is more limited than that of problem solving.

Should the problem solving process be applied to all problems?

As part of their application for a loan to buy Lakeside Farm,a property they hope to develop as a bed-and-breakfast operation,the prospective owners have projected: Monthly fixed cost (loan payment, taxes, insurance, maintenance) $\quad\$ 6000$ Variable cost per occupied room per night $\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\$ 20$ Revenue per occupied room per night $\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\$ 75$ a.Write the expression for total cost per month. Assume 30 days per month. b.Write the expression for total revenue per month. c.If there are 12 guest rooms available, can they break even? What percentage of rooms would need to be occupied, on average, to break even?

A feasible solution is one that satisfies at least one of the constraints in the problem.