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UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

SECOND SEMESTER/YEARLY EXAMINATIONS

MAY 2013
PROGRAMME

BEng (Hons) Manufacturing Engineering

MODULE NAME

Operational Research
Tuesday

DATE

MODULE CODE

MECH 4001Y(5)

28 May 2013

TIME

09:30 12:30 Hrs

NO. OF
QUESTIONS SET

DURATION

NO. OF QUESTIONS
TO BE ATTEMPTED

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Answer ALL Questions.
All questions carry equal marks

3 hours

OPERATIONAL RESEARCH MECH 4001Y(5)


Answer ALL questions.
All questions carry equal marks.
Question 1
(a)

What is inventory management and explain what are the advantages and
disadvantages of having inventories?
[5 Marks]

(b)

A diesel engine manufacturing company has planned its production schedule for
the next year based on the forecasted demand, back orders and plant capacity.
Instead of manufacturing the piston, that goes in the final product, the company
has decided to buy the piston from XYZ Pistons Co Ltd. The number of pistons
required are at the rate of 100 per day. Ordering costs have been estimated at Rs
60 per order and the carrying cost fraction is 0.20. All the assumptions of the basic
EOQ model are applicable. The company however can take advantage of one of
the several quantity discounts. The pricing schedule of XYZ Pistons Co Ltd is
listed as follows:
Quantity Ordered

Unit Price (Rs)

0-1999
2000-4999

100
90

5000 10000
Over 10000

80
70

Assume a 300 working days in the year.


(i)
(ii)

What is the optimal order quantity?


What is the minimum inventory cost?
[15 Marks]

Question 2
(a)

A company is manufacturing two different types of products A and B. Each


product has to be processed in 3 different departments- casting, machining and
finally quality inspection. The capacity of the department is limited to 35 hours,32
hours and 24 hours per week respectively. Product A requires 7 hours in the
casting department, 8 hours in the machining shop and 4 hours in inspection,
whereas product B requires 5 hours, 4 hours and 6 hours respectively in each
shop. The profit contribution for a unit of A & B is Rs 40 and Rs 30 respectively.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)

(b)

Formulate the problem as a LPP.


Find the optimal quantities of product A & B by using the graphical method.
What is the total profit contribution
[2+4+4 Marks]

Using the Simplex Method, find the optimal quantities of product A and B for the
problem from part (a).
[10 Marks]
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OPERATIONAL RESEARCH MECH 4001Y(5)


Question 3
(a)

At a telephone booth, arrivals are assumed to follow Poisson distribution with


average time of 10 minutes between two calls. The average length of a telephone
call is 4 minutes and it is assumed to be exponentially distributed. Find:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)

Average number of calls ( customers) in the system


Average number of calls waiting to be served
Average time a caller spends in the system
Average waiting time of a call before being served
Fraction of time during which the booth is empty
Probability of at least one customer in the booth
Probability of more than three calls in the system
[10 Marks]

(b)

The cost of equipment is Rs 7200 and the scrap value is Rs 200. The maintenance
costs are as follows:

Year
Annual
maintenance cost

1
150

2
300

3
450

4
650

5
950

6
1300

7
1850

8
2500

When should the equipment be replaced?


[10 Marks]
Question 4
(a)

What are the assumptions to be considered in a sequencing problem?


[5 Marks]

(b)

A ready made garment manufacturer has to process 6 items through three stages
of production: cutting, sewing and pressing. The time taken for each of these
items at the different stages are given below in hours:
Items

Cutting

Sewing

Pressing

10

Find the order in which these items are to be processed through these stages so as
to minimize the total time involved?
Also calculate the total elapsed time and the idle time of each machine.
[5+5+5 Marks]

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OPERATIONAL RESEARCH MECH 4001Y(5)


Question 5
(a)

Give the different phases in the simulation process?


[5 Marks]

(b)

La Baguette Magique Bakery keeps stock of a popular brand of cake. Previous


experience indicates the daily demand as given below:

Daily Demand

10

20

30

40

50

Probability

0.01

0.20

0.15

0.50

0.12

0.02

Consider the following sequence of random numbers:


R No. 48,

78,

19,

51,

56,

77,

15,

14,

68,

09

Using this sequence, simulate the demand for the next 10 days. Find out the stock
situation if the owner of the bakery decides to make 30 cakes every day. Also
estimate the daily average demand for the cakes on the basis of simulated data.
[15 Marks]

END OF QUESTION PAPER


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