MIDTERM (INDIVIDUAL WORK – SUBMIT ON LMS – INCLUDE FILE DOC/PDF,

EXCEL SOLVER AND QM FOR WINDOWS)

UDT is a consulting firm that develops e-commerce project, systems and websites for its clients.
It has six available consultants and eight clients project is under contract. The consultants have
different technical abilities and experience, and as a result, the company charges different hourly
rates for its services. Also, the consultant’s skill are more suited for some projects than others,
and clients sometimes prefer some consultants over others. The suitability of a consultant for a
project is rated according to a 5-point scale, in which 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. The
following table shows the rating for each consultant for each project, as well as the hours
available for each consultant and the contracted hours and maximum budget for each project :
Project
Consultant Hourly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Available
wage hours
A $150 3 3 5 5 3 4 3 3 450
B $140 3 3 2 4 5 5 3 3 550
C $160 2 1 3 3 2 1 5 3 500
D $300 1 3 1 1 2 2 5 1 300
E $270 3 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 710
F $150 4 5 3 2 3 4 3 3 860
Project 500 240 400 450 350 460 290 200
Hours
Contract 100 80 120 90 65 85 50 55
budget
(x1000
USD)

The company wants to know how many hours to assign each consultant to each project in order
to best utilize their skill while meeting clients needs
a. Formulate a linear programming model and write down the mathematical model for this
problem.
b. Solve this problem using QM and SOLVER
c. If the company want to maximize revenue while ignoring client preferences and
consultant compatibility, will this change the solution in b. ?
d. Create a sensitivity report. What is the shadow price in this case ?
e. If consultant A and E change their hourly wage from $155 to $200 (A) and from $270 to
$200, will the solution change ?
f. By exprerience, consultant B and E is getting better at their ability, which mean their
capacity for every project now minimum start from 3 instead of 1 or 2, will the shadow
price change ?