Q1.

Personal Mini Warehouses is planning to expand its successful Orlando business into
Tampa. In doing so, the company must determine how many storage rooms of each size to
build. Its objective and constraints follow:

Maximize monthly earnings = 50𝑋1 + 20𝑋2

Subject to 2𝑋1 + 4𝑋2 ≤ 400 (advertising budget available)
100𝑋1 + 50𝑋2 ≤ 8000 (Square footage required)
𝑋1 ≤ 60 (Rental limit expected)
𝑋1 , 𝑋2 ≥ 0

Where 𝑋1 = number of large spaces developed

𝑋2 = number of small spaces developed

Use this to answer the following questions:

a. For the optimal solution, how much of the advertising budget is spent?
b. For the optimal solution, how much square footage will be used?
c. Would the solution change if the budget were only $300 instead of $400?
d. What would the optimal solution be if the profit on the large spaces were reduced from $50 to
$45?
e. How much would earnings increase if the square footage requirement were increased from
8,000 to 9,000?

Q2. Solve the following LP formulation graphically:

Minimize costs: 24𝑋1 + 28𝑋2
Subject to 5𝑋1 + 4𝑋2 ≤ 2000
𝑋1 ≥ 80
𝑋1 + 𝑋2 ≥ 300
𝑋2 ≥ 100
𝑋1 , 𝑋2 ≥ 0

Q3. (Nuclear plant staffing problem) South Central Utilities has just announced the August 1
opening of its second nuclear generator at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, nuclear power plant. Its
personnel department has been directed to determine how many nuclear technicians need to be
hired and trained over the remainder of the year. The plant currently employs 350 fully trained
technicians and projects the following personnel needs:
By Louisiana law, a reactor employee can actually work no more than 130 hours per month.
(Slightly over 1 hour per day is used for check-in and check-out, recordkeeping, and daily
radiation health scans.) Policy at South Central Utilities also dictates that layoffs are not
acceptable in those months when the nuclear plant is overstaffed. So, if more trained
employees are available than are needed in any month, each worker is still fully paid, even
though he or she is not required to work the 130 hours. Training new employees is an important
and costly procedure. It takes one month of one-on-one classroom instruction before a new
technician is permitted to work alone in the reactor facility. Therefore, South Central must hire
trainees one month before they are actually needed. Each trainee teams up with a skilled
nuclear technician and requires 90 hours of that employee’s time, meaning that 90 hours less of
the technician’s time are available that month for actual reactor work. Personnel department
records indicate a turnover rate of trained technicians at 5% per month. In other words, about
5% of the skilled employees at the start of any month resign by the end of that month. A trained
technician earns an average monthly salary of $2,000 (regardless of the number of hours
worked, as noted earlier). Trainees are paid $900 during their one month of instruction.
(a) Formulate this staffing problem using LP.
(b) Solve the problem. How many trainees must begin each month?

Q4. Elizabeth Bailey is the owner and general manager of Princess Brides, which provides a
wedding planning service in Southwest Louisiana. She uses radio advertising to market her
business. Two types of ads are available—those during prime time hours and those at other
times. Each prime time ad costs $390 and reaches 8,200 people, while the off-peak ads each
cost $240 and reach 5,100 people. Bailey has budgeted $1,800 per week for advertising. Based
on comments from her customers, Bailey wants to have at least 2 prime time ads and no more
than 6 off peak ads.
(a) Formulate this as a linear program.
(b) Find a good or optimal integer solution part (a) by rounding off or making an educated guess
at the answer.

Q5. Triangle Utilities provides electricity for three cities. The company has four electric
generators that are used to provide electricity. The main generator operates 24 hours per day,
with an occasional shutdown for routine maintenance. Three other generators (1, 2, and 3) are
available to provide additional power when needed. A startup cost is incurred each time one of
these generators is started. The startup costs are $6,000 for 1, $5,000 for 2, and $4,000 for 3.
These generators are used in the following ways: A generator may be started at 6:00 A.M. and
run for either 8 hours or 16 hours, or it may be started at 2:00 P.M. and run for 8 hours (until
10:00 P.M.). All generators except the main generator are shut down at 10:00 P.M. Forecasts
indicate the need for 3,200 megawatts more than provided by the main generator before 2:00
P.M., and this need goes up to 5,700 megawatts between 2:00 and 10:00 P.M. Generator 1
may provide up to 2,400 megawatts, generator 2 may provide up to 2,100 megawatts, and
generator 3 may provide up to 3,300 megawatts. The cost per megawatt used per eight hour
period is $8 for 1, $9 for 2, and $7 for 3.
(a) Formulate this problem as an integer programming problem to determine the least-cost way
to meet the needs of the area