FIT3138 Assignment 1 1 | P a g e FIT3158 Business Decision Modelling Semester 2, 2018 Assignment Two A Logistic Model – The Acid Chemical Company Due Date: Friday 12th October 2018 11pm Value: 20% of...

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FIT3138 Assignment 1 1 | P a g e FIT3158 Business Decision Modelling Semester 2, 2018 Assignment Two A Logistic Model – The Acid Chemical Company Due Date: Friday 12th October 2018 11pm Value: 20% of Final Assessment Mode of submission: Online on Moodle Type of Assignment: Group Assignment This group assignment requires the collaborative effort of three students per group. Students will continue working with their group from Assignment one. No change of group member is allowed without prior approval from the FIT3158 lecturer. About 20 minutes will be allocated at the end of each week’s tutorial for group members to come together to discuss and work on the assignment. You may also use this time to consult your tutor if you have any issues with your assignment. Every student in the group is required to actively participate and would be used as a basis for marks adjustment for the final score (if necessary) of the assignment. Learning Objectives (Learning Outcomes: 1, 2, 3 & 4) The aim of this assignment is to provide students with an opportunity to develop their problem solving as well as modelling skills. In so doing, the following objectives are sought:  The ability to critically analyse a real business case;  The ability to design, implement and analyse mathematical optimisation and spreadsheet- based models;  The ability to conduct sensitivity analysis and to interpret the results of mathematical decision models to aid business decision.  The ability to critically assess the accuracy and applicability of their model.  The ability to present their findings in a formal report to management. Assignment Specification and deliverables Overview: The assignment makes use of the case study referring to the Acid Chemical Company. The assignment, and your task, is two-fold: 1. To model the problem in Excel spreadsheet and; 2. To produce a report. 2 | P a g e The Model  When building your model, bear in mind the goals and guidelines for good spreadsheet design as discussed in Lecture 2. Marks are given for good spreadsheet design.  Marks will also be given for originality.  Every member in the group must know the model well and be able to demonstrate/explain the model when asked. The Report The report comprises six sections, which are designated as follows: Section 1: A brief Executive Summary. Section 2: An introduction that briefly describes the problem. Section 3: This section is to contain a formulation of the problem as a linear program that minimises costs. Section 4: A precise, yet concise, documentation of the model that you have built. (Including any assumptions made) Section 5: Perform a sensitivity analysis, analyse the results and comment on the solution. Section 6: Conclusion: Your recommendation and your response to the three questions listed in the article. Appendix:  Include at least one screen dump of the entry of the problem into EXCEL (i.e. the model that you have built in EXCEL)  Include the Excel reports (Sensitivity/Answer/Limits report) as supportive documents for Section 5 above. Notes: Section 1, 2 and 6 should not exceed 1 page each. Section 4 and 5 should not exceed 3 pages each. Hints: Start by considering the number of routes and the number of different tanker types. There may be no feasible solution for the specified tanker fleet. One approach is to arbitrarily expand the fleet and examine the final solution and slacks. _____________________________________________________________________________ 3 | P a g e Delivery structure and submission instructions: 1. Key deliverables include: a. An Excel workbook saved as: Assignment 2.xlsx (or xlsm) which includes: i. The model for the problem ii. Sensitivity/Answer/Limits Report b. A Word document saved as Assignment 2.docx (or .pdf)w which includes: i. A formal report to the Acid Chemical Company Transport Manager ii. Appendix (for any extra information) 2. You are to upload your submission on the FIT3158 Moodle site under the “FIT3158 Assignment 2” submission link. 3. Only one submission per group is required but each member in the group needs to confirm that they agree with the submission by clicking on the ‘Submit’ button on their Moodle page. 4. Other deliverable documents to include: Meeting minutes, weekly project plan and timesheets. 5. Every student is required to submit a peer review separately via the “CATME” link. 6. Assignment 2 and CATME review due: Friday 12th October 2018 11pm Plagiarism declaration: The moment you upload your assignment on Moodle, you are required to accept the Student Statement (which includes a declaration that you have not plagiarised during the preparation of your assignment solution). You are required to ACCEPT the Student Statement; otherwise, you won’t be able to submit your assignment electronically and your assignment will NOT be assessed. Late Submission: 1. Submission must be made by the due date otherwise a penalty of 10% reduction in the marks gained per late day will be applied. (For example, if you got 70%, but were 2 days late, your mark will be reduced by 10% x 70 (marks gained) x 2 (days late) = 14 marks.) 2. If you believe that your assignment will be delayed because of circumstances beyond your control such as illness, you should apply for an extension prior to the due date. All applications for extensions must be made in writing to your lecturer. Medical certificates or other supporting documentation will be required. The in-semester special consideration form can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html https://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html The Acid Chemical Company Case Study Page: 1 of 5 Note: The original problem has been altered. 8 The Acid Chemical Co: Planning an Outline Schedule for a Fleet of Road Tankers J. M. LAWSON Central Investigation Department, Heavy Organic Chemicals Division, I.C.I. Ltd. 1 INTRODUCTION The Transport Department of Acid Chemical Company operates a fleet of road tankers which are used for carrying two chemical intermediates. One of these is called Acidic and has to be delivered to customers in various parts of the country from Acid Chemical's own factory on Teesside. The other, which is called Caustic, is made by another company in Huddersfield and has to be transported to Acid Chemicals factory at Teesside where it is used in the manufacture of other chemicals. The traffic in both chemicals has expanded considerably over the years and the fleet has grown to match the demands made on it and now stands at a total of twelve tankers, some of which have barrels split into two compartments. The fleet is based on Teesside where facilities exist for maintenance, servicing etc., and since a considerable amount of Acidic is used at Huddersfield by the same company that make Caustic, tankers calling there to deliver the Acidic usually make the return trip to Teesside carrying a load of Caustic. However, the effectiveness of this two-way operation is severely limited because the same compartment of a barrel cannot be used for carrying both chemicals unless it is given a very thorough cleaning between journeys. This cleaning operation is not very expensive but it is hazardous to health, so that up to the present, the Transport Manager has not allowed it to take place. In the future, the Transport Manager is only willing to undertake the cleaning if he can see that it will save him from purchasing another vehicle to transport the tonnages of Acidic and Caustic which are forecast for the coming year. Even then he is only prepared to have compartments cleaned out once at the beginning of the year. The Transport Manager has already received the forecasts of Acidic and Caustic deliveries for the coming year, and has decided that, because he has found the forecasts for these two chemicals to be fairly reliable in previous years, they should form a reasonable basis for making his plans. He decides that he has a number of important questions to answer: 1. Is the existing tanker fleet capable of meeting the demands which will be made on it next year without modifications to the size or number of compartments in any barrel and without cleaning out any compartments? 2. If so, what advantage would there be in cleaning out compartments and how should the tankers be allocated to the various duties so that the chemicals are transported for the least total cost? Page: 2 of 5 3. If not, what size of fleet is required? What changes should be made to the compartments and once again how should the tankers be allocated to the duties to be performed to minimize the total cost? He realizes that these are not very simple questions; indeed he has had to wrestle with them many times before and has never been entirely satisfied that he has found the best answers. He therefore seeks the aid of the Operational Research Department who send a man across to help. The O.R. scientist and the manager sit down together and between them they decide that for practical purposes the problem can be described in the following way. 2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Table 8.1 displays the capacities of the tankers as they stand at the present time and also shows which chemical they are being used for until the beginning of next year. The compartmented barrels are not divided up into equal parts because small compartments of 6.0 tons capacity were designed to carry the exact quantity of Acidic which can be off-loaded at the depots at Huddersfield and Manchester B at anyone time. Neither of these depots can handle a load of more than 6.0 tons of Acidic since storage facilities are limited because of the high capital costs. The other eight depots which receive Acidic use it for a different purpose and they can store much larger quantities because they do not have to maintain stringent conditions to prevent contamination. However, none of them will accept loads of less than 15 tons at a time. By law, no tanker is allowed to carry more than 16.0 tons of