Operational Research

Assignment # 01
Submission Date: April 2022

Question-1: Ozark Farms uses at least 800 lb of special feed daily. The special feed is a mixture of corn
and soybean meal with the following compositions:

The dietary requirements of the special feed are at

Question -2: Identify the direction of decrease in z in each of the following cases:

(a) Minimize z = 4 X1 - 2X2

(b) Minimize z = -3 X1 + X2

(c) Minimize z = - X1 - 2 X2.

Question-3 For the diet model, suppose that the daily availability of corn is limited to 450 lb. Identify the
new solution space, and determine the new optimum solution.

Question-4: For the diet model, what type of optimum solution would the model yield if the feed mix
should not exceed 800 Ib a day? Does the solution make sense?

Question-5: John must work at least 20 hours a week to supplement his income while attending school.
He has the opportunity to work in two retail stores. In store 1, he can work between 5 and 12 hours a
week, and in store 2 he is allowed between 6 and 10 hours. Both stores pay the same hourly wage. In
deciding how many hours to work in each store, John wants to base his decision on work stress. Based
on interviews with present employees, John estimates that, on an ascending scale of1 to 10, the stress
factors are 8 and 6 at stores 1 and 2, respectively. Because stress mounts by the hour, he assumes that
the total stress for each store at the end of the week is proportional to the number of hours he works in
the store. How many hours should 10hn work in each store?

Question-6: Oil-Co is building a refinery to produce four products: diesel, gasoline, lubricants, and jet
fuel. The minimum demand (in bbl/day) for each of these products is 14,000,30,000, 10,000, and 8,000,
respectively. Iran and Dubai are under contract to ship crude to Oil-Co. Because of the production
quotas specified by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) the new refinery can receive
at least 40% of its crude from Iran and the remaining amount from Dubai. Oil-Co predicts that the
demand and crude oil quotas will remain steady over the next ten years.

The specifications of the two crude oils lead to different product mixes: One barrel of Iran crude yields
0.2 bbl of diesel, 0.25 bbl of gasoline, 0.l bbl of lubricant, and 0.15 bbl of jet fuel. The corresponding
yields from Dubai crude are 0.1, 0.6, 0.15, and 0.1, respectively. Oil-Co needs to determine the minimum
capacity of the refinery (in bbl/day).
Question-7: An industrial recycling center uses two scrap aluminum metals, A and B, to produce a
special alloy. Scrap A contains 6% aluminum, 3% silicon, and 4% carbon. Scrap B has 3% aluminum, 6%
silicon, and 3% carbon. The costs per ton for scraps A and Bare $100 and $80, respectively. The
specifications of the special alloy require that:

(1) the aluminum content must be at least 3% and at most 6%.

(2) the silicon content must lie between 3% and 5%.

(3) the carbon content must be between 3% and 7%.

Determine the optimum mix of the scraps that should be used in producing 1000 tons of the alloy

Question-8: An assembly line consisting of three consecutive stations produces two radio models: HiFi1
and HiFi-2. The following table provides the assembly times for the three workstations.

Minutes Per Unit

Work Stations HiFi-1 HiFi-200

1 6 4

2 5 5

3 4 6

The daily maintenance for stations 1,2, and 3 consumes 10%,14%, and 12%, respectively, of the
maximum 480 minutes available for each station each day. Determine the optimal product mix that will
minimize the idle (or unused) times in the three workstations.

Question -9: Wyoming Electric Coop owns a steam-turbine power-generating plant. Because Wyoming is
rich in coal deposits, the plant generates its steam from coal.111is, however, may result in emission that
does not meet the Environmental Protection Agency standards. EPA regulations limit sulfur dioxide
discharge to 2000 parts per million per ton of coal burned and smoke discharge from the plant stacks to
20 lb per hour. The Coop receives two grades of pulverized coal, C1 and C2, for use in the steam plant.
The two grades are usually mixed together before burning. For simplicity, it can be assumed that the
amount of sulfur pollutant discharged (in parts per million) is a weighted average of the proportion of
each grade used in the mixture. The following data are based on consumption of 1 ton per hour of each
of the two coal grades.
Coal Sulfur discharge in parts Smoke discharges Steam Generation
Grade per Million in lb per hour in lb per hour

C1 1800 2.1 12,000

C2 2100 0.9 9,000

(a) Determine the optimal ratio for mixing the two coal grades. (b) Determine the effect of relaxing the
smoke discharge limit by 1 lb on the amount of generated steam per hour.