Semester: Fall Academic year: 2019/20
Assessment Instrument: (HWK, Quiz, Mid, Final, Project, …)
Due Date: 24/11/2019
Course Instructor: Dr. Genanew B. W
College/Department: Dubai Business School
This instrument assesses the following Course Learning Outcomes (CLO):
CLOs:
Tick Course Learning Outcomes (CLO)* Marks
x 1. Understand decision making under certainty, uncertainty and under risk
- Explain how to plan and control projects by determining the project
completion time and the slack times of each activity.
/5
- Illustrate how analytical models of waiting lines (queuing theory), can help
managers evaluate the cost and effectiveness of service systems;
/6
- Illustrate optimisations techniques of linear programming and apply them in
various organizational settings. /5
x 5. Apply optimization techniques to prepare business reports for UAE/GCC business
Total from 16 /16
*Linkages to Program Outcomes and Concentration Outcomes are provided in the Syllabus.
Student’s Name: ……………………………………..
Student’s ID No: ……………………………………..
Marks: Maximum (16 Marks). This constitutes 16 % of the total course marks.
Group evaluation to individual contributions
Student’s Name (and ID) Share of Individual contribution*
1
2
3
4
5
*To be filled (out of 100), to show the share-of contribution of each student in the group
Project Paper [16 MARKS]
2
PROJECT RUBRIC
The purpose of this project/home-work is to model and solve real life decision problems in
business using decision tools such as projects controlling, waiting lines, and linear programming.
The term paper is based on all the materials studied and the discussions held during the course.
This exercise will help you relate the theory to the real world.
The term paper will include a cover page and references pages. Maintain a font size 12 and use
Times New Roman. Do not use single or double spacing – kindly use 1.5 spacing. Make sure to
keep your data (and the source of the data) as an evidence.
Note that a maximum of 16 marks will be awarded to your report based on the quality of your
report and individual contributions. PLAGIARISM WILL NOT BE EXCUSED.
Please provide a well-organized report covering all the questions,
and submit your report both in hard copy (by hand) and soft copy
(through Moodle – Deadline is November 24th
, 2019)
NOTE: Each member of the team is expected to present (in a power point) your report.
(Your well-organized power point should be sent to [email protected] – Deadline is Nov. 26,
2019)
Your project has three sections. Please provide a well-organized report covering both.
- Project scheduling:
Pick a real-life project (e.g. house construction, setting up a business, …). For this project, discuss
among your group (also discuss with experts in that field) and come up with a list of activities to
be accomplished. For each of the activities identify the predecessors. Based your group
discussion and experts’ advise set the time to accomplish each activity. [In case time is not known
for sure, set the optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time to accomplish each activity].
3
Once you have these information, compile a report providing your analysis including the
following:
o A project network for your project.
o The Earliest starting (ES), Earliest finishing (EF), Latest starting (LS), and Latest finishing
(LF) time of each project activity. Explaining the purpose of identifying this information
(Hint: Allowing vacation time for workers).
o Identifying the critical path, and the critical activities of your project.
o Estimation of the expected time to complete your project.
o [In case of using the optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic time] Estimation of the
probability that your project will be completed within 3 Months (12 Weeks or 30 days)?
- Waiting time (Queuing theory):
Pick a service provision company (e.g. Etisalat or Du service center at a mall, EPCO fuel station,
MacDonald,…). For this service providing company, conduct a survey on the number of arrivals
per a specific period of time (e.g. per hour or every ½ an hour). This will help you to get the
average arrival rate (). Also get information on the service rate () at each counter, and the
number of service counters () in the company you visited. MAKE SURE TO CONDUCT YOUR
SURVEY DURING THE STEADY-STATE PERIOD OF THE COMPANY.
Once you have the above information, compile a report providing your analysis including the
following:
o Introduction section – Providing a complete background information of the company (you
selected). Also provide information on process your group followed to undertake the field
survey and how you calculated the average arrival rate (), the service rate (), and the
number of service counters () of the company.
o Following the introduction section, your analytical report should determine the operating
characteristics (performance measures) for the waiting line of the company, including:
– the probability that no customers are in the company (system),
– the average number of customers in the waiting line,
– the average number of customers in the system (waiting + being served),
– the average time a customer spends in the waiting line,
– the average time a customer spends in the system,
– the probability that an arriving customer has to wait for service, and
– furcating the probability that 5 customers will be in the system (company)
o Based on your above findings, what are your recommendations to the company in terms of
improving its service provision.
4
- Linear Programming:
Many problems in real life are concerned with obtaining the best result within given constraints.
In the business world, people would like to maximize profits and minimize loss; in production,
people are interested in maximizing productivity and minimizing cost. However, there are constraints like the budget, costs, time, number of workers, production capacity, space, etc. Linear programming deals with this type of problem.
A dietician wishes to mix two types of foods (Food I and II) in such a way that vitamin contents
of the mixture contain at least 8 units of vitamin A and 10 units of vitamin C. ‘Food I’ contains 2
units per kg of vitamin A and 1 unit per kg of vitamin C. ‘Food II’ contains 1 unit per kg of vitamin
A and 2 units per kg of vitamin C. It costs AED 50 per kg to purchase ‘Food I’ and AED 70 per
kg to purchase ‘Food II’. Formulate this problem as a linear programming problem to minimize the cost of such a mixture.
a. Develop the linear programming model for this problem? [You must clearly define the
decision variables]
b. Use a GRILL-LINE to clearly and neatly show the feasible region.
c. Find the optimal solution (i.e. How many kg of Food I and Food II should be produced to meet the minimum daily requirements of the vitamins at a minimum cost)?
d. How much (in AED) will be the minimum cost to meet the minimum daily requirements?
[Clearly, show your calculation]
e. Calculate the slack for each constraint.