Assignment Description:

Business analytics skills using optimisation methods must be demonstrated in this assignment. You will need to use linear programming to formulate and model a problem, and Excel solver will be used to conduct the analytics and obtain the solutions. For the assignment, you are required to form a group of 4-5 students. Each group needs to select a company from the list below and use the company's website to collect some background information and any type of preliminary information that could help in formulating the optimisation problem of the company. For example you may find some information about a given company's operations, their branches/wholesales, level of production, etc., that could help you with formulating the problem.

You will realise that there is no direct information about optimisation problems of the company of your choice, therefore you will need to use the company's background information along with business analytics knowledge to formulate the problem. For instance for a manufacturer the problem could be transportation of the products from manufacturing point to the customer or to the warehouse.

Based on the preliminary information that you collect, you need to make assumptions and build up a model for the company and solve the problem.

The assignment should be formulated based on any of Transshipment, or Assignment problems (you just need to do one out of these two options).Below is a list of companies/organisations and possible approaches to problem solving:

Transshipment problem

Woolworths

Coles

Aldi

7-11

Assignment problem

Virgin airlines

Metro-train

Alfred Hospital

Better health channel

This assignment will require you to use linear programming to develop objective function and constraints and solve the problem. Solving the problem will be in two stages:

Manually solve the constraints and draw the relevant graph to demonstrate the feasible region.

Using excel solver to find the solution and interpreting the output.

Assignment requirement:

Model Design

choose a company from the list or assume your own company

make assumptions about the problem before formulating the problem and modelling (assumptions such as the type of operation, amount of manufacturing and shipment, cost, etc.)

Formulate a Linear Programming problem (LP)

After formulating the problem define the following:

oDefine decision variables

oDefine objective functions

oDefine constraints

Model implementation

Implement the model

oDraw the graph of constraints

oShow the feasible region

oRun the analysis using Excel solver

oPrepare Excel output of the model using excel solver

oRun sensitivity analysis using excel solver and interpret the results

Assignment structure:

Introduction to the company

Selection of the company

oassumptions about the problem before formulating the problem and modelling

Problem definition

oIdentification and description of the problem to be analysed

Model design:

oFormulation of Linear Programming problem (LP)

oDefining decision variables

oDefining objective functions

oDefining constraints

Model implementation:

oDraw the graph of constraints

oShow the feasible region

oRun the analysis using Excel solver

oPrepare Excel output of the model using excel solver

oRun sensitivity analysis using excel solver and interpret the results

Recommendation and conclusion

Structure and presentation of the assignment

Appendix (should include both assignment word document and Excel solver file)

Note: Students need to submit the assignment as a word document along with the Excel solver file used for the analyses.