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Solution To Bonus Problem 3: Telephone Survey: Person Responding Percentage of Daytime Calls Percentage of Evening Calls
Solution To Bonus Problem 3: Telephone Survey: Person Responding Percentage of Daytime Calls Percentage of Evening Calls
For a telephone survey, a marketing research group needs to contact at least 150 wives,
120 husbands, 100 single adult males, and 110 single adult females. It costs $2 to make a
daytime call and (because of higher labor costs) $5 to make an evening call. The table
below lists the results that can be expected. For example, 30% of all daytime calls are
answered by a wife, and 15% of all evening calls are answered by a single male. Because
of a limited staff, at most half of all phone calls can be evening calls.
Person Responding Percentage of Daytime Calls Percentage of Evening Calls
Wife 30 30
Husband 10 30
Single male 10 15
Single female 10 20
None 40 5
Data for Phone Problem
1
Based on 3-20 and 3-21 (p. 101) in Practical Management Science (2nd ed., Winston and Albright, 2001
Duxbury Press). Solution by David Juran, 2001.
1. Determine how to minimize the cost of completing the survey.
Mathematical Formulation:
Decision Variables
X1 = Daytime Calls, X2 = Evening Calls
Objective
Minimize Z = 2X1 + 5X2
Constraints
0.30X1 + 0.30X2 ≥ 150
0.10X1 + 0.30X2 ≥ 120
0.10X1 + 0.15X2 ≥ 100
0.10X1 + 0.20X2 ≥ 110
1X1 ≥ 1X2
1X1, 1X2 ≥ 0
The input cell is the value that we want to vary (in this case B9, the cost of a daytime
call). We specify a range of values for this cell (here, $0.00 to $20.00 in increments of
$1.00).
We also specify Output Cells (here, the numbers of each type of call — cells B12:C12,
and the total cost — cell B22).
Finally, we tell SolverTable to write its output starting in cell F1.
Sensitivity Analysis
1400 $7,000
1200 $6,000
Daytime
Evening
1000 Total Cost $5,000
Calls Made
Total Cost
800 $4,000
600 $3,000
400 $2,000
200 $1,000
0 $-
$- $1.00 $2.00 $3.00 $4.00 $5.00 $6.00 $7.00 $8.00 $9.00 $10.00
Conclusion: If daytime calls are very inexpensive, we can dispense with evening calls
altogether. However, we will always have to make at least 400 daytime calls, no matter
how expensive they are.
Sensitivity Analysis
1400 $3,000
1200
$2,500
1000
$2,000
Calls Made
Total Cost
800
Daytime $1,500
600 Evening
Total cost
$1,000
400
$500
200
0 $-
$- $1.00 $2.00 $3.00 $4.00 $5.00 $6.00 $7.00 $8.00 $9.00 $10.00