THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Test 2 – Evening

BS/BF/IP 341/BSP 340: OPERATIONS RESEARCH

DURATION: 3 HOURS
TOTAL MARKS: 100

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

i. There are four (4) questions in this paper. Answer All

ii. Show all your workings and present your work with clarity and neatness.

iii. Begin each question on a new page.

iv. There shall be no ANY form of communication between students during the
examination. Any students caught doing this will be disqualified.

DO NOT TURN THIS PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

Page 1 of 12
QUESTION ONE

A distribution manager at a certain brewery in Lusaka is faced with a problem of how to

make a distribution plan for his beer brands. The brewery has four depots which have
stocked opaque beer brands to be supplied to various retailers as indicated below. The
transportation costs (Kwacha) per hectoliter are also shown below.
Chilanga Chelston George Jack Supply
Freedom Green Compound Compound (hectoliters)
Chat Beer 10 30 25 15 1500
Lusaka 20 15 20 10 600
Beer
Shake 10 30 20 20 1400
Shake
Nkhosi 30 40 35 45 1100
Beer
Demand 1000 1200 1500 900
(hectoliters)

Required: Management for this company wants to know how much should be budgeted
for transportation of beer. Determine the optimum plan that will minimize the total
distribution cost, what will be the optimal cost? [15 Marks]
b) An evaluation team at the Ministry of Health recently conducted an evaluation of
suppliers who bid for the various contracts. The results of the bid sums ($’000) are
shown on the table below.
Suppliers Contract 1 Contract Contract 3 Contract Contract
2 4 5
A 2 4 3 5 4

B 7 4 6 8 4

C 2 9 8 10 4

D 8 6 12 7 4

E 2 8 5 8 8

How should the contracts be assigned to potential suppliers to minimize the total cost?
What is the total cost? [10 Marks]

Total [25 Marks]

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QUESTION TWO

a) A marketing manager is considering doing a promotion campaign. He has listed all

the activities involved in the promotional campaign for a new microwave. He has come
up with the list as follows:
Description of activities Activity
Activity duration
Activity
predecessor
(weeks)
A Develop the training plan (the design of the - 6
training program that the store
representatives will put through before the
final in-store introduction of the product)

B Develop promotional and training materials - 5

plan (detailed study of materials that will be
required for stores representatives)

C Selection of stores representatives to undergo B 2

training

D Conduct the training C 2

E Develop the advertising plan ( a detailed plan of A,D 2

projected radio, TV and prime media
advertising)
F Develop the advertising copy that will be D 1
required

G Schedule for radio, TV and print advert that A,D 6

will appear prior to the launch of the product

H Prepare materials which will be used during in E 5

store introduction

I Prepare materials which will be used in the G,H 6

training of stores representatives

J Conduct pre-advertising campaign I 2

K Invite various stakeholders G 4

L Final in-store introduction of the product J,K 3

M Post review of product launch and feedback to L 1

design team

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Required: Construct an Activity-on Arrow network, compute the earliest start time
and latest finish time for each of the activities and find out the due time for the launch
and identify the bottleneck activities [11 Marks]

b) AVIC Housing Contractors is negotiating a deal with Kitwe City Council to build six
houses in new Kitwe. The council wants AVIC Contractors to start the works late June
or early July before the 2021 August elections. Currently AVIC is undertaking so many
building projects which has given confidence to the council that the contractor will finish
the houses in good time. The houses all have similar floor plans and are of
approximately equal size; only the exteriors are noticeably different. The completion
time is so critical for Kitwe City Council that it is insisting a project management network
accompany the contractor’s bid for the job with an estimate of the completion time for
a house. The council also needs to be able to plan its offerings and marketing of these
houses. Hence, wants each house to be completed within 45 days after it is started. If
a house is not completed within this time frame, the council will charge the contractor
a penalty.
Mr. Ulemwenako the project engineer for AVIC Contractors, are concerned about the
prospect of a penalty. They want to be confident they can meet the deadline for a house
before entering into any agreement with a penalty involved. (If there is a reasonable
likelihood they cannot finish a house within 45 days, they want to increase their bid to
cover potential penalty charges). AVIC international are experienced home builders, so
it was not difficult for them to list the activities involved in building a house or to estimate
activity times. However, they made their estimates conservatively and tended to
increase their pessimistic estimates to compensate for the possibility of escalating cost
of material and variations in their workforce. The following table lists the activities for
building a house and the activity time estimates.

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 Time (days)
Activity Description Predeces t t tp
sor o m

A Excavation, pour footers – 3 4 11

B Lay foundation A 1 3 5
C Frame and roof B 2 4 6
D Lay drain tiles B 1 2 9
E Sewer (floor) drains B 1 2 3
F Install insulation C 2 4 6
G Pour basement floor E 2 3 9
H Rough plumbing, pipes E 2 4 6
I Install windows F 1 3 5
J Rough electrical wiring F 1 2 3
K Install furnace, air conditioner C,G 3 5 13
L Exterior brickwork I 5 6 13
M install plasterboard, mud, plaster J,H,K 7 8 15
N Roof shingles, flashing L 2 3 4
O Attach gutter, downspouts N 1 2 9
P Grading D,O 2 3 9
Q Lay subflooring M 4 5 6
R Lay driveway, walks, landscape P 5 6 13
S Finish carpentry Q 4 5 12
T Kitchen cabinetry, sink, and appliances Q 2 4 6
U Bathroom cabinetry, fixtures Q 4 7 16
V Painting (interior and exterior) T,U 2 6 10
W Finish floors, lay carpet V,S 2 8 20
X Final electrical, light fixtures V 1 3 5

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a) Redraw the PERT Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) network for AVIC Contractors on your
paper. Calculate the earliest starts and latest completion times of all activities and show
the critical path. [8 Marks]

b) Determine the variance and standard deviation for this housing project [2 Marks]

c) What is the probability that the contractors can complete a house within 45 days? [3
Marks]

d) Does it appear that the AVIC might need to increase their bid to compensate for
potential penalties? [1 Marks]

Total [25 Marks]

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QUESTION THREE

1) FRA plans to set up more satellite depots for the small scale farmers on the
Copperbelt Province. The move is aimed at easing transportation costs small scale
farmers incur during harvesting period. Five satellite locations have been identified.
These sites, and the distances (in km) between them, are listed in the table below. FRA
through partnering with RDA wants to minimize the kilometers of roadway required to
provide the desired accessibility to these satellite depots.

Bwanamukubwa Lufwanyama Masaiti Mpongwe Fibenge

Bwanamukubwa --- 7 19 19 4

Lufwanyama 7 --- 8 16 13

Masaiti 19 8 --- 18 5

Mpongwe 19 16 18 --- 17

Fibenge 4 13 5 17 ---

i) Determine how roads should be built to achieve this objective and the minimum
distance [3 Marks]
ii) Determine the undesired roads FRA should avoid at all cost and the maximum
distance [2 Marks]
2) In a departmental store one cashier is there to serve the customers. And the
customers pick up their needs by themselves. The arrival rate is 9 customers for every
4 minutes and the cashier can serve 10 customers in 4 minutes. Assuming Poisson
arrival rate and exponential distribution for service rate, find:

(a)Average number of customers in the system. [2 marks]

(b)Average number of customers in the queue or average queue length. [2 marks]
(c) Average time a customer spends in the system. [2 marks]
(d)Average time a customer waits before being served. [2 marks]
(e)The utilization factor [1 marks]

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(f) The probability that 2 customers will arrive [2 marks]

3) U-Rest mattress limited in Ndola manufactures around 200 six inch mattresses a
day. Depending on the availability of raw materials and other conditions, the daily
production has been varying from 196 to 204 mattresses, whose probability distribution
is given below:

Production/day: 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204
Probability: 0.11 0.20 0.14 0.06 0.11 0.05 0.09 0.09 0.15
The finished mattresses are transported in specially designed container truck that can
load a maximum of 200 mattresses per delivery. Using the following 20 random
numbers: 10, 54, 27, 77, 50, 23, 04, 45, 18, 61, 53, 24, 78, 89, 82, 00, 98, 09, 15, and
34. Simulate the process to find out:

i. What will be the average number of mattresses waiting in the factory? [5 Marks]
ii. What will be the number of empty spaces in the truck? [4 Marks]
Total [25 Marks]
QUESTION FOUR
a) A well-known bank has opened a branch in Dundumwezi were it will have four
counters to deal with all kind of customers. Customers are found to arrive in a Poisson
manner at a rate of 6 per hour for deposits, withdraws, account opening, etc. The
service time is found to have exponential distribution with mean 25 minutes. Customers
are served on a first come, first served basis. Calculate:
i. The average number of customers in the system [3 Marks]
ii. The average time a customer spends in the system [2 Marks]
iii. The average queue length [3 Marks]
iv. The average waiting time for customers [2 Marks]
v. The traffic intensity and the idle time [3 Marks]
The director of finance for a farm cooperative is concerned about the yield per acre she
expect from this year’s maize crop. The probability distribution of the yields for the
current weather conditions is given below:

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 Yield in kg per acre Probability
120 0.18
140 0.26
160 0.44
180 0.12
She would like to see a simulation of the yield she might expect over the next 10 years
especially with the current unstable weather patterns.
a) Simulate the average yield she might expect per acre using the following random
numbers: 20, 72, 34, 54, 30, 22, 48, 74, 76, and 02. [4 Marks]
She is also interested in the effect of market price fluctuations on the cooperative’s farm
revenue. She makes this estimate of per kg prices for maize:
Price per kg (Kwacha) Probability
2 0.05
2.1 0.15
2.2 0.3
2.3 0.25
2.4 0.15
2.5 0.1
b) Simulate the price she might expect to observe over the next 10 years using the
following random numbers: 82, 95, 18, 96, 20, 84, 56, 11, 52, and 03. [4 Marks]
c)Assuming that prices are independent of yields, combine these two into the revenue
per acre and also find out the average revenue per acre she might expect every year[4
Marks] Total [25 Marks]
Formula’s sheet

λ
ρ=
μ
λ
Ls = (μ −λ)
1
Ws = (μ −λ)

Page 9 of 12
 λ2
Lq = μ(μ −λ)
λ
Wq = μ(μ −λ)
P n = (1 − ρ)(ρ)n

1
P0 = λ 𝑐
2
𝑐−1 (λ/μ) ) (𝜇) 𝑐𝜇
∑𝑛=0 + +
𝑛! 𝐶! 𝑐𝜇− λ

λ 𝑐
λμ(𝜇) λ
Ls = 2 × 𝑃𝑜 + 𝜇
(𝐶−1)!(𝑐𝜇−λ)

λ 𝑐
λμ(𝜇)
Lq = 2 × 𝑃𝑜
(𝐶−1)!(𝑐𝜇−λ)
𝐿𝑠
Ws =
λ
𝐿𝑞
Wq =
λ
λ
𝜌=
𝑐𝜇

𝑡𝑜 + 4𝑡𝑚 + 𝑡𝑝
𝑡𝑒 =
6
𝑡𝑜 − 𝑡𝑝 2
𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = ( )
6
σ =√∑ 𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ

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Page 11 of 12
End of the Test Paper!

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