Exam 8: Nonlinear Programming and Evolutionary Optimization

In a maximization problem, the GRG algorithm's search for a feasible direction of improvement equates to ____ in the simplex algorithm for LP problems.

If the "Standard LP/Quadratic Engine" option is chosen in the Risk Solver Platform (RSP) task pane, RSP

Why does the GRG algorithm not provide allowable increase or allowable decrease information with the Reduced Gradient and Lagrange multiplier information?

The straight line (Euclidean) distance between two points (X₁, Y₁) and (X₂, Y₂) is calculated as

Which of the following is not an assumption of an EOQ problem.

The GRG algorithm terminates when it

What is the search path for the following feasible solution space? The dashed line represents the objective function and the objective is to maximize the value of the objective function.

A company wants to locate a new warehouse to minimize the distance traveled by its delivery trucks. It has four stores and their coordinates are listed in the accompanying spreadsheet. What formula goes in cell D9 of the spreadsheet?

An office supply company is attempting to determine the order quantity for laser printer toner cartridges which are sold to local businesses. Annual demand is 20,000 units and each cartridge costs the store $25. It costs $30 to place an order and the inventory carrying cost rate is 25% of the value of the item. The following spreadsheet has been set up to solve the problem. What formula goes in cell B11 in this problem?

A construction company just purchased a 300 * 300 foot lot upon which they plan to build an office building. They need at least 60,000 ft² of office floor space. Zoning regulations require each floor be 10 feet high and the building not exceed 65 ft in height. Further, parking space must equal at least 30% of the total floor space available. The company's cost accountant uses a 60% factor of the building height and a 1% factor of any story's floor area to calculate the total building cost (in millions of dollars). Formulate the NLP for the problem.

An office supply company is attempting to determine the order quantity for laser printer toner cartridges which are sold to local businesses. Annual demand is 20,000 units and each cartridge costs the store $25. It costs $30 to place an order and the inventory carrying cost rate is 25% of the value of the item. The following spreadsheet has been set up to solve the problem. What constraint would you impose on this problem to ensure that at least one order is placed per year?

An investor wants to determine how much interest he must earn to be able to make the payments on a 10-year mortgage which has increasing annual payments. The problem is summarized in the accompanying spreadsheet. The investor has enough money to make an initial investment of $9,000 and hopes he can earn 12%, compounded quarterly, on his investments. He would like to know how low his annual return can be and still allow him to make his payments from interest income. What constraint must be entered in the Risk Solver Platform (RSP) task pane?

An investor wants to determine how much interest he must earn to be able to make the payments on a 10-year mortgage which has increasing annual payments. The problem is summarized in the accompanying spreadsheet. The investor has enough money to make an initial investment of $12,000 and hopes he can earn 18% on his investments. He would like to know how low his annual return can be and still allow him to make his payments from interest income.What formulas should go in cells B7:F7 of the spreadsheet for this problem?

NLP problems which have slack in all the constraints

The Sweet Water beverage company is designing a new soft drink can. The designers wish to minimize the manufacturing cost of the can, a cost that is directly related to the amount of aluminum used in the can. The can must hold at least 350 ml (or cm³) of beverage, have a diameter between 3 and 7 cm, and have a height between 7 and 19 cm. Formulate the NLP for Sweet Water.

The following questions pertain to the problem and spreadsheet below. A company makes products A and B from 2 resources, labor and material. The company wants to determine the selling price which will maximize profits. A unit of A costs 25 to make and demand is estimated to be 20 - .10 * Price of A. A unit of B costs 18 to make and demand is estimated to be 30 - .07 * Price of B. The utilization of labor and materials and the available quantity of resources is shown in the table. A reasonable price for the products is between 100 and 200. Let X₁ = demand for As and X₂ = demand for Bs. Let P₁ = price for As and P₂ = price for Bs -Refer to Exhibit 8.1. What formula is used in cell D12 of the spreadsheet for this problem?

An office supply company is attempting to determine the order quantity for Mt. White fountain pens which are sold to local executives. Annual demand is 5,000 units and each pen costs the store $50. It costs $75 to place an order and the inventory carrying cost rate is 30% of the value of the item. What values should go in cells B3:B11 of the spreadsheet for this problem if Q = 223.61?

Kornfield Trucking handles private and commercial moves. They currently own 500 moving vans and employ 2000 full-time workers. Their trucks are used to pick-up and deliver office and household goods throughout the Eastern and Southeastern states. Kornfield mans each truck with three workers. This allows driver swaps providing increased miles-covered-per-hour ratio while staying within safety requirements for individual driving time. A 3-person crew also reduces company reliance on local help. Local distributors and warehouses provide a pool of laborers for loading and unloading the moving trucks. While in the past this arrangement has worked well, the arrangement has soured recently as the temporary workers have demanded higher wages while produced less work. Despite their pay and benefits package, Kornfield still finds that the nature of the work (lifting and time on the road) makes for a high rate of turnover. Thus, Kornfield maintains an excess of workers/drivers, but no more than 3.75 workers per truck at any time.The following information is available on the trucks in the Kornfield inventory and their options for new purchases. The following information applies to Kornfield personnel actions. Kornfield has an operating budget of $ 75M next year and wants to expand their operations. As a part of this expansion, they are considering options for their truck fleet and may purchase new trucks, sell old trucks to salvage or some combination of the two. Any salvage money received is rolled into the operating budget. Kornfield is also considering possible changes to their work force. Their current force has a fairly high average salary and their operating budget is not greatly affected by releasing current employees. On the other hand, newer employees carry a much lower average salary and do not tax the operating budget heavily in hiring and training costs. The Cobb-Douglas production function is used to model the number of vehicle miles driven per year. This function represents the quantity Kornfield management would like to maximize as they expand their operations. The general form of the Cobb-Douglas production function is the following: where y is the output, each X_i represents an input and the letters represent constants. This function generalizes to fewer or a greater number of parameters than the three depicted above. The constants for the Kornfield Trucking production function are (a, b, c, d) = (9.1, 0.05, 0.40, 0.50). Formulate the Kornfield Trucking problem as a non-linear programming problem. Implement the problem in Excel and use Risk Solver Platform (RSP) generalized reduced gradient (GRG) routing to obtain a solution to the problem. What is a recommended solution for Kornfield Trucking?

When using the GRG algorithm to solve NLPs one should try multiple starting points because

A company wants to locate a new warehouse to minimize the distance traveled by its delivery trucks. It has four stores and their coordinates are listed in the accompanying spreadsheet. Which cell(s) in the spreadsheet represent the decision variables in the problem?