MB048-Operations Research

Q1) Explain the scope of Operations Research. What are the features of Operations Research? Ans- Scope of Operations Research. Any problem, simple or complicated, can use OR techniques to find the best possible solution. Belowwe will explain the scope of OR by seeing its application in various fields of everyday life. i) In Defense Operations: In modern warfare, the defense operations are carried out by three major independent components namely Air Force, Army and Navy. The activities in each of these components can be further divided in four sub-components namely: administration, intelligence, operations and training and supply. The applications of modern warfare techniques in each of the components of military organizations require expertise knowledge in respective fields. Furthermore, each component works to drive maximum gains from its operations and there is always a possibility that the strategy beneficial to one component may be unfeasible for another component. Thus in defense operations, there is a requirement to co-ordinate the activities of various components, which gives maximum benefit to the organization as a whole, having maximum use of the individual components. A team of scientists from various disciplines come together to study the strategies of different components. After appropriate analysis of the various courses of actions, the team selects the best course of action, known as the optimum strategy. ii) In Industry: The system of modern industries is so complex that the optimum point of operation in its various components cannot be intuitively judged by an individual.

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The business environment is always changing and any decision useful at one time may not be so good some time later. There is always a need to check the validity of decisions continuously against the situations. The industrial revolution with increased division of labor and introduction of management responsibilities has made each component an independent unit having their own goals. For example: production department minimizes the cost of production but maximizes output. Marketing department maximizes the output, but minimizes cost of unit sales. Finance department tries to optimize the capital investment and personnel department appoints good people at minimum cost. Thus each department plans its own objectives and all these objectives of various department or components come to conflict with one another and may not agree to the overall objectives of the organization. The application of OR techniques helps in overcoming this difficulty by integrating the diversified activities of various components to serve the interest of the organization as a whole efficiently. OR methods in industry can be applied in the fields of production, inventory controls and marketing, purchasing, transportation and competitive strategies. Planning: In modern times, it has become necessary for every government to have careful planning, for economic development of the country. OR techniques can be fruitfully applied to maximize the per capita income, with minimum sacrifice and time. A government can thus use OR for framing future economic and social policies. Agriculture: With increase in population, there is a need to increase agriculture output. But this cannot be done arbitrarily. There are several restrictions. Hence the need to determine

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a course of action serving the best under the given restrictions. You can solve this problem by applying OR techniques. In Hospitals: OR methods can solve waiting problems in out-patient department of big hospitals and administrative problems of the hospital organizations. In Transport: You can apply different OR methods to regulate the arrival of trains and processing times minimize the passengers waiting time and reduce congestion, formulate suitable transportation policy, thereby reducing the costs and time of trans-shipment. Research and Development: You can apply OR methodologies in the field of R&D for several purposes, such as to control and plan product introductions.

Q3) a) Explain the Monte Carlo Simluation. Ans- Monte Carlo simulation is useful when same elements of a system, such as arrival of parts to a machine, etc., exhibit a chance factor in their behavior. Experimentation on probability distribution for these elements is done through random sampling. Following five steps are followed in the Monte Carlo simulation: Procedure of Monte Carlo Simulation: 1. Decide the probability distribution of important variables for the stochastic process. 2. Calculate the cumulative probability distributing for each variable in Step 1.

3. Decide an interval of random numbers for each variable. 4. Generate random numbers. 5. Simulate a series of trials and determine simulated value of the actual random variables. b) A Company produces 150 cars. But the production rate varies with the distribution.

Production 147 Rate Probability 0.05

148 0.10

149 0.15

150 0.20

151 0.25

152 0.15

153 0.05

At present the track will hold 150 cars. Using the following random numbers determine the average number of cars waiting for shipment in the company and average number of empty space in the truck. Random Numbers 82, 54, 50, 96, 85, 34, 30, 02, 64, 47. Ans-

Q4. Explain the Characteristics and Constituents of a Queuing System. Ans- Characteristics of Queuing Models The constituents of queuing system include Population of Customers, Arrival, Queue, Service and Output. The detailed description of each of these characteristics is mentioned below: 1. Population of Customers: This could both be limited (closed systems) as well as unlimited (open systems). The examples of a limited population include a given number of machines to be fixed by a service man or a certain number of processes to be run by a computer. Unlimited population involves a theoretical model of system comprising a large number of potential customers like a motorway petrol station or a bank on a busy street. The term customer is to be taken very generally as customers could comprise people, different types of machines, telephone calls, computer processes etc. 2. Arrival It is the way customers enter a queuing system. Arrivals are normally random with two adjacent arrivals generally spaced by random intervals. An arrival is described through a random distribution of intervals, which is called Arrival Pattern. 3. Queue It refers to a given number of customers waiting for some kind of service. However, a customer who is being served is not considered to be part of a queue any more. The customers forming a queue may comprise both living as well as inanimate objects (account holders waiting in a line at a bank or planes waiting to land on a runway)

Maximum Size and Queuing Discipline are the two important properties of a queue. Maximum Size refers to the maximum number of customers waiting in a queue. It even includes those who are being served. Queuing Discipline refers to the way a queue is organized i.e. how customers are added to or removed from a queue. Its constituents include: 1. FIFO (First In First Out), which is also known as FCFS (First Come First Serve). 2. LIFO (Last In First Out), which is also known as LCFS (Last Come First Serve). 3. SIRO (Serve In Random Order). 4. Priority Queue. 5. There are other complex queuing methods as well, which change a customer's position in a queue on the basis of different factors like priority, the time that a customer has already spent in a queue, expected service duration etc.

4. Service : Basically, it is some kind of activity that customers make a beeline for. This too is to be taken very generally. In addition to including a real service performed on persons or machines, it may also comprise a connection created for a phone call, a CPU time slice etc. A service takes place randomly and there are theoretical models based on a random distribution of service, which is called Service Pattern.

Another important constituent of Service is the number of servers. While systems with one server are called Single Channel Systems, those with more are called multichannel systems. 5. Output It is about how customers leave a queuing system.

Characteristics of Queuing Model

Request Arrival Rate (a) A service request normally arrives through one of the four patterns viz. steady, irregular, regular or random. Service Distribution Rate (s) It involves the number of requests that are processed within a given time period. Utilization (u) It is about the traffic intensity that is determined by dividing the request arrival rate with the service rate. Number of Servers (c) It is about the total number of servers that have been employed to process the queue request. The length of a line elongates or shortens as per the total number of tellers that are available on duty. Queue Discipline The standard deviation calculation is affected by how queued requests are processed.

Q.5) a) What do you mean by dominance? State the dominance rules for rows and columns? Ans-

Q6) a) What are the difference between PERT and CPM? Ans- CPM.: 1. CPM is activity oriented i.e., CPM network is built on the basis of activities. 2. CPM is a deterministic model. It does not take into account in uncertainties involved in the estimation of time. 3.CPM places dual emphasis on project time as well as cost and finds the trade off. between project time and project cost. 4. CPM is primarily used for projects which are repetitive in nature and comparatively small in size. PERT 1.PERT is event oriented. 2.PERT is a probabilitic model. 3.PERT is primarily concerned with time only. 4. PERT is used for large one time reserach and development type of projects. b)