ID No.

: Name:

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

HYDERABAD CAMPUS
SECOND SEMESTER 2017-2018
MATH F242: OPERATIONS RESEARCH
COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: PART A (CLOSED BOOK)
Date: 03-05-2018 Marks: 27
Day: THURSRDAY Time: 120 Min
_______________________________________________________
Note: Answer all the questions. Each question carries equal marks. Write the most simplified answer in
the space provided. Cutting/overwriting is not allowed.

1
Q1. A device has the reliability 𝑅(𝑡) = 𝑡+1 , 𝑡 > 0 (𝑡 in years). The minimum number of units of the device
should be placed in parallel to get the reliability (of the system) of at least 0.97 for 10 years is _______ [3 M]

Q2. The demand of a commodity is 100 units per day and the production rate is 200 units per day. The set up
cost is Rs 500 per production run. The cost of holding inventory is Rs 1.25 per unit per day. The per unit
production cost is Rs 4. No shortages are allowed. Then 𝑄 ∗ = _________________, 𝑇𝐶𝑈(𝑄 ∗ ) = ____________ and
the time between two consecutive production run is_____________ [1+1+1=3 M]

Q3. In a single server queuing system with Poisson input and exponential service time, arrivals tend to get
2
discouraged when more and more customers are present in the system. Specifically assume that 𝜆𝑛 = 𝑛+1

and 𝜇𝑛 = 4. Then the probability that the server is busy = _____________, the effective arrival rate= ___________

and the expected number of customers in the system is_____________ [1+1+1=3 M]

3 − 𝑡, 0 < 𝑡 ≤ 2
1, 2 < 𝑡 ≤ 10
Q4. The hazard rate function of a device is 𝑍(𝑡) = {
𝑡 − 9, 10 < 𝑡

If 𝑅(𝑡) is the reliability of the device then 𝑅(1) = __________ , 𝑅(3) = __________

and for 𝑡 > 10, 𝑅(𝑡) = __________ [1+1+1=3 M]

Q5. A small market orders copies of a certain magazine for its magazine rack each week. Let 𝑋 = demand for
the magazine, with the following probability mass function

𝑋=𝑥 1 2 3 4 5 6
𝑃(𝑋 = 𝑥) 0.25 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.10 0.10

Suppose that store owner actually pays Rs 20 for each copy of the magazine and price to customers is Rs
40.Magazines left at the end of the week have no salvage value. If the owner orders for three copes of the
magazine, the expected revenue is _______ [3 M]
Q6. A queuing system has four servers with expected service times of 30 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes and
15 minutes . The service times have an exponential distribution. Each server has been busy with a current
customer for 6 minutes. The expected remaining time until the next service completion is _______ [3 M]

Q7. Consider the following project network

Earliest occurrence time of node 6 = ______ and latest occurrence of node 3 = ________
Critical paths is/are……………. [1+1+1=3 M]

Q8. A 4-ton vessel can be loaded with one or more of three items. The following table gives the unit weight, 𝑤𝑖 ,
in tons and the unit revenue in thousands of dollars, 𝑟𝑖 . The goal is to determine, the number of units of each item
that will maximize the total return.
Item Weight Revenue
1 1 30
2 2 60
3 3 80

You want to solve this problem using dynamic programming (backward recursion) with 𝑛(= 3) stages. Let 𝑥𝑖 is
the state at stage 𝑖 (the total weight assigned to stages 𝑖, 𝑖 + 1, ⋯ 𝑛). Define 𝑓𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 ) = maximum return for stages
𝑖, 𝑖 + 1, ⋯ 𝑛, given the state 𝑥𝑖 .
Optimum solutions: 𝑓3 (4) = 𝑓2 (2) = 𝑓2 (4) = [1+1+1=3 M]

Q9. Consider the following 4 × 2 game. The payoff is for player A

𝐵1 𝐵2
𝐴1 6 5
𝐴2 3 6
𝐴3 8 4

The probability with which player 𝐵 plays strategy 𝐵2 is ________ and the value of the game is ________________.
The probability with which player 𝐴 plays strategy 𝐴3 is ________ [1+1+1=3 M]