Name______________________________

Student ID______________________________

Section_____________________________

BUAD-311 Operations Management

Sample Mid-term Exam I Fall 2007
Open Book, Open Notes,
No Lap Tops
State all your assumptions clearly

Make sure that you have 6 pages (Including the cover page)
Good Luck
VERSION A

Section A: Multiple Choices [4 pts each]

1. A company has five machines and two
products. Product X will be processed on
Machine A, and then J, then B. Product Y
will be processed on Machine C, then J,
then D. The demands for both products
are 48 units per week. The capacities
(units/week) of the machines are marked
in the graph on the right. Which machine
is the bottleneck?
a)
A
b)
B
c)
C
d)
D
e)
J

A:
50

B:
60
J:
90

C:
70

D:
80

e)
2. Under same demand and equipment capacity, which of the following may happen
when WIP decreases?
a) longer throughput time
b) higher utilization rate
c) higher throughput rate
d) bottleneck shifting
e) none of the above
e)
3. For seasonal products, which of the following will not help us to solve the
capacity problem?
a)
Buy more equipments
b)
Introduce more variety of the products
c)
Work overtime
d)
Build up inventories
e)
Outsource
b)
4. Which of the following statement is false?
a)
Throughput rate is always smaller than or equal to the capacity
b)
Customers may wait even if the utilization rate of the service process
is smaller than 100%
c)
Bottleneck resource(s) always has 100% utilization rate
d)
Increasing WIP may increase throughput rate
e)
None of the above
c)

5. Which of the following is true?

I: a linear program always has an objective function
II: a linear program always has some decision variable(s)
III: a linear program always has feasible solutions
a) I
b) II
c) III
d) I and II
e) I, II, and III
d)
6. Consider the following formulation:
Maximize
5x+6y
Subject to:
x>=0
y>=0
x+y<=2
2x+3y<=5
Which of the following statement is false?
a)
This formulation is a linear program.
b)
x=1 and y=1 is a feasible solution.
c)
The optimal solution has objective function value no less than 11.
d)
x=2 and y=0 is a feasible solution.
e)
x=2 and y=0 is an optimal solution.
e)

Section B: Problems
1. [18 pts] Three operators work at a drive through counter of a fast food restaurant. On
average it takes an operator four minutes to serve a customer. During a day, there are
on average 9 cars waiting for in line. The manager of the restaurant has hired a
summer student who found that in average one car per minute are trying to enter the
drive through area. 50% of these cars are put off by the long waiting line and simply
leave without placing an order.
a) [6 pts] Does the drive through counter have enough capacity?
The minute capacity of the drive through counter is = 0.75. The drive
through counter does not have enough capacity.
(4pts)

b) [6 pts] For those cars that stay in the line, on average how long does a car
spend in waiting?
Throughput rate = 1*50% = 0.5 cars per minute
WIP = 9 cars
Throughput time = 9/0.5 = 18 minutes

c) [6 pts] The restaurant manger is considering adding three more operators to

speed the process. He believes that the additional operator will enable all cars
to enter the drive through area and reduce the number of cars waiting to 4.
What will the waiting time be?
Throughput rate = 1 = 1 cars per minute
WIP = 4 cars
Throughput time = 4/1 = 4 minutes

2. [30 pts] Cary-EZ Transportation Company has four branches located in four cities:
Seattle, Miami, New York and San Francisco. In each of these four cities, there is a
warehouse storing product X. Cary-EZ Transportation Company must ship product X
to three destinations: Detroit, Los Angeles, and Dallas. There are 800 units of product
X located in Seattle, 900 units located in Miami, 1200 units located in New York, and
500 units located in San Francisco. Demand for product X in the destination cities
are: 1500 units in Detroit, 800 units in Los Angeles, and 1100 units in Dallas. The
shipping cost rates from each branch city to each destination pair are shown in the
table below.

Shipment Cost /
unit
Seattle
Miami
New York
San Francisco
Demand

Detroit

Los Angeles

Dallas

23
17
12
24
1500

18
25
25
8
1400

29
15
17
21
1100

Stored units
of Product X
800
900
1200
500

The company wants to determine the shipping arrangement that minimizes the total
shipment cost from all branches to all destinations. Assume that no demand shortage
is allowed.
a) [6 pts] What are the decision variables?
Xij: shipment from branch city i to destination city j;
i=1,2,3,4 for Seattle, Miami, New York, S.F, respectively;
j=1,2,3 for Detroit, L.A and Dallas, respectively
(0.5pts for each decision variable)
b) [4 pts] What is the objective function?
Minimize 23X11+18X12+29X13
+17X21+25X22+15X23
+12X31+25*X32+17X33
+24X41+8X42+21X43

(4pts)

c) [16 pts] List all the constraints.

X11+X12+X13<=800
X21+X22+X23<=900
X31+X32+X33<=1200
X41+X42+X43<=500
X11+X21+X31+X41>=1500
X12+X22+X32+X42>=1400
X13+X23+X33+X43>=1100
Xij>=0 for i=1,..4; j=1,..3

(2pts)
(2pts)
(2pts)
(2pts)
(2pts)
(2pts)
(2pts)
(2pts)

d) [4 pts] Is this linear program feasible?

No, this linear program is not feasible because the total demand 1500 +
1400 + 1100 = 4000 is greater than the total supply 800 + 900 + 1200 + 500
= 3400.

3. [28 pts] Kristens cookie has been a success and she decides to expand her operations.
The process flow is same as before: to make a dozen cookies, one needs to mix using
a mixer (six minutes), then dish up the cookies onto a tray (two minutes), then set the
oven and timer (one minutes); the oven cooks for nine minutes; it takes five minutes
to cool the cookies, and three minutes to pack and accept payment. Kristen estimates
the rush hour demand would be 15 dozen per hour.
a) [12 pts] How many ovens, mixers, and trays should Kristen buy to satisfy the
rush hour demands?
Oven: 10 minutes per order. 15*10/60 = 2.5, 3 ovens are needed
(4pts)
Mixer: 6 minutes per order. 15*6/60 = 1.5, 2 mixer are needed
(4pts)
Trays: 17 minutes per order. 15*17/60 = 4.25, at least 5 trays are needed
(4pts)

b) [12 pts] How many cashiers (in charge of packing and accepting payment)
should Kristen hire? How many food preparers (in charge of from mixing to
setting timer) should Kristen hire? How many workers in total should Kristen
hire?
Cashier: 3 minute per order. 15*3/60 = 0.75, 1 cashier is sufficient
(4pts)
Food Preparers: 9 minute per order. 15*9/60 = 2.25, 3 food preparers are
required
(4pts)
Total workers: 1+3 =4 is required
(4pts)

c) [4 pts] Is it possible to satisfy the demand with one less worker?

Yes. By cross-training the workers, only a total of 3 workers are needed.
(Each dozen cookies take 12 minutes labor, 12*15/60=3 workers.)