Analyze The Key Challenges For Brendan And Maeve: Management Science Assignment, MU, Ireland

1.  The Bridge 1988

Brendan Quinlan and Maeve Lynch are a couple. They decided to open an Irish restaurant in Changchun, a small town in Northeast China. There were no other Irish restaurants in Changchun, and the possibility of doing something new and somewhat risky intrigued the young people. They purchased an old bistro just off Main Street for their new restaurant, which they named “The Bridge 1988”.

Brendan and Maeve knew in advance that at least initially they could not offer a full, varied menu of dishes. They had no idea what their local customers’ tastes in Irish cuisine would be, so they decided to serve only two full-course meals each night, one with beef and the other with fish. Brendan, their chef, was confident he could make each dish so exciting and unique that two meals would be sufficient, at least until they could assess which menu items were most popular.

Brendan indicated that with each meal he could experiment with different appetizers, soups, salads, vegetable dishes, and desserts until they were able to identify a full selection of menu items. The next problem for Brendan and Maeve was to determine how many meals to prepare for each night so they could shop for ingredients and set up the work schedule.

They could not afford too much waste. They estimated that they would sell a maximum of 60 meals each night. Each fish meal, including all accompaniments, requires 15 minutes to prepare, and each beef meal takes twice as long. There is a total of 20 hours of kitchen staff labor available each day. Brendan and Maeve believe that because of the health consciousness of their potential clientele they will sell at least three fish meals for every two beef meals.

However, they also believe that at least 10% of their customers will order beef meals. The profit from each fish meal will be approximately €12, and the profit from a beef meal will be about €16.

1. Analyze the key challenges for Brendan and Maeve.

2. Formulate a linear programming model for Brendan and Maeve that will help them estimate the number of meals they should prepare each night to maximize the total profit.

3. Plot the constraints, shade the feasible region, and solve this model graphically.

4. If Brendan and Maeve increased the menu price on the fish meal so that the profit for both meals was the same, what effect would that have on their solution?

5. Brendan and Maeve were considered the reliability of some of their kitchen staff. They estimated that on some evenings they could have a staff reduction of as much as 5 hours. How would this affect their profit?

6. After Brendan and Maeveincreased the menu price on the fish meal, the demand for beef meals increased. Suppose Brendan and Maeve considered the demand for beef meals and decided at least 20% of their customers would purchase the beef meals. What effects would this have on their meal preparation plan?

7. Brendan and Maeve considered investing in some advertising to increase the maximum number of meals they served. They estimated that if they spent €30 per day on a social media ad, it would increase the maximum number of meals they served per day from 60 to 70. Should they make the investment?

8. The final question they would like to explore was raising the price of the fish meal. Maeve believed the price for a fish meal is a little low and that it could be closer to the price of a beef meal without affecting customer demand. However, Brendan had already made plans based on the number of meals recommended by the linear programming solution. Maeve suggested a price increase that would increase profit for the fish meal to €14. Would this be acceptable by Brendan, and how much additional profit would be realized?

Question 2

I transport products from their three processing plants directly to three warehouses. The products are processed in plants located in Athlone, Ballinasloe, and Cavan. The warehouses are located in Kilkenny, Limerick, and Mayo.

In line with the research supporting a shorter working week and higher productivity, the plants and warehouses operate on a FOUR-day week basis. Supply and demand are as follows: Athlone can supply 120 units/week; Ballinasloe can supply 80 units/week, and Cavan can supply 20 units/week. Demand is 60 units/week at Kilkenny, 120 units/week at Limerick, and 40 units/week at Mayo. Daily Per unit shipping costs (in Euro) from the processing plants to each of the warehouses are displayed in the table below.

1. Show the network representation of the iEx transportation problem to minimize the daily total shipping cost.

2. Formulate the linear programming model of the iEx transportation problem to minimize the daily total shipping cost.

2. The MaskMake

The MaskMake Company manufactures a variety of masks for healthcare professionals around Ireland. Company vans are used to deliver local orders directly to retail outlets. When their business was small, the drivers of the vans were free to take routes of their choice as they made the delivery rounds to the retail outlets.

However, as the business has grown recently due to the outbreak, transportation and delivery costs have become significant. In an effort to improve the efficiency of the delivery operation, MaskMake management would like to determine the shortest delivery routes between retail outlets. For example, the following network shows the roads (distance in km) that may be taken between a retail outlet at node 1 and a retail outlet at node 11.

1. Determine the shortest route for a van that is currently at node 1 and must make a delivery to node 11.

2. Project Scheduling

A new motorway project is being planned in Ireland, with its construction expected to cost €1 billion. The 100km route will connect Ireland’s second-largest city, Cork, with the city of Limerick. The intended alignment for the motorway runs alongside the existing N20, which runs through Blarney, Mallow, and Charleville. The new motorway forms part of the Project Ireland 2040 program of infrastructure works.

The first step in the project is to appoint a project manager and develop a project team. Once the team is selected and the staff is in place, the next task is to select a primary contractor to manage and oversee the construction. The following activities, their immediate predecessors, as well as the activity time estimates (in days) are standard for the planning and scheduling of this project:

1. What are the critical activities?

2. What is the expected time to complete the project?

3. What is the probability that the project can be completed in 25 days or fewer?

4. Explain the what-if analysis process.

5. Which are the steps to follow when solving a problem using a scoring model?