Management Science Reviewer

1. The maximization or minimization of a quantity is the

a.goal of management science. b. decision for decision analysis.
c. constraint of operations research. d. objective of linear programming.
2. Decision variables
a. tell how much or how many of something to produce, invest, purchase, hire, etc.
b. represent the values of the constraints.
c. measure the objective function.
d. must exist for each constraint.
3. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
a. A feasible solution satisfies all constraints.
b. An optimal solution satisfies all constraints.
c. An infeasible solution violates all constraints.
d. A feasible solution point does not have to lie on the boundary of the feasible region.
4. A solution that satisfies all the constraints of a linear programming problem except the nonnegativity
constraints is called a. optimal. b. feasible. c. infeasible. d. semi-feasible.
5. Slack
a. is the difference between the left and right sides of a constraint.
b. is the amount by which the left side of a £ constraint is smaller than the right side.
c. is the amount by which the left side of a ³ constraint is larger than the right side.
d. exists for each variable in a linear programming problem.
6. All linear programming problems have all of the following properties EXCEPT
a. a linear objective function that is to be maximized or minimized.
b. a set of linear constraints.
c. alternative optimal solutions.
d. variables that are all restricted to nonnegative values.
7. Infeasibility means that the number of solutions to the linear programming models that satisfies all constraints
Is a. at least 1. b. 0. c. an infinite number. d. at least 2.
8. A negative dual price for a constraint in a minimization problem means
a. as the right-hand side increases, the objective function value will increase.
b. as the right-hand side decreases, the objective function value will increase.
c. as the right-hand side increases, the objective function value will decrease.
d. as the right-hand side decreases, the objective function value will decrease.
9. A constraint with a positive slack value
a. will have a positive dual price.
b. will have a negative dual price.
c. will have a dual price of zero.
d. has no restrictions for its dual price.
10. A basic solution and a basic feasible solution
a. are the same thing.
b. differ in the number of variables allowed to be zero.
c. describe interior points and exterior points, respectively.
d. differ in their inclusion of nonnegativity restrictions.
11. When a set of simultaneous equations has more variables than constraints,
a.it is a basic set. b. it is a feasible set. c. there is a unique solution. d. there are many solutions.
12. Which of the following is not a step that is necessary to prepare a linear programming problem for solution
using the simplex method?
a. formulate the problem.
b. set up the standard form by adding slack and/or subtracting surplus variables.
c. perform elementary row and column operations.
d. set up the tableau form.
13. The optimal solution is found in an assignment matrix when the minimum number of straight lines needed to
cover all the zeros equals
a. (the number of agents) - 1.
b. (the number of agents).
c. (the number of agents) + 1.
d. (the number of agents) + (the number of tasks).
14.The difference between the transportation and assignment problems is that
a . total supply must equal total demand in the transportation problem
b. the number of origins must equal the number of destinations in the transportation problem
c. each supply and demand value is 1 in the assignment problem
d. there are many differences between the transportation and assignment problems
15. An example of a heuristic is the
a.minimum-cost method. b. stepping-stone method. c. Hungarian method. d. MODI method.
16. To use the transportation simplex method, a transportation problem that is unbalanced requires the use of
a.artificial variables. b. one or more transshipment nodes.
c. a dummy origin or destination. d. matrix reduction.
17. Which is not a significant challenge of project scheduling?
a. deadlines exist. b. activities are independent.
c. many employees could be required. d. delays are costly.
18. The critical path
a. is any path that goes from the starting node to the completion node.
b. is a combination of all paths.
c. is the shortest path.
d. is the longest path
19. The earliest start time rule
a. compares the starting times of all activities for successors of an activity.
b. compares the finish times for all immediate predecessors of an activity.
c. determines when the project can begin.
d. determines when the project must begin.
20. Activities G, P, and R are the immediate predecessors for activity W. If the earliest finish times for the three
are 12, 15, and 10, then the earliest start time for W
a. is 10. b. is 12. c. is 15. d. cannot be determined.
21. Activities K, M and S immediately follow activity H, and their latest start times are 14, 18, and 11. The latest
finish time for activity H
a.is 11. b.is 14. c. is 18. d. cannot be determined.
22. For an activity with more than one immediate predecessor activity, which of the following is used to compute
its earliest finish (EF) time?
a. the largest EF among the immediate predecessors.
b. the average EF among the immediate predecessors.
c. the largest LF among the immediate predecessors.
d. the difference in EF among the immediate predecessors.
23. Which of the following is a general rule for crashing activities?
a. Crash only non-critical activities.
b. Crash activities with zero slack.
c. Crash activities with the greatest number of predecessors.
d. Crash the path with the fewest activities.
24. When activity times are uncertain,
a. assume they are normally distributed.
b. calculate the expected time, using (a + 4m + b)/6.
c. use the most likely time.
d. calculate the expected time, using (a + m + b)/3.
25. Consider the following definitions regarding slacks of project activities 1. The difference between the late start
and early start times of a job is called the total slack. 2. The critical path is one whose jobs have zero total slack 3.
The amount of time by which a job can be delayed without affecting the early start time of any job is called the
free slack 4. The difference between the total slack of an activity and the minimum total slack of all its immediate
successors is called free slack. Of these definitions:
A. 1 and 2 are correct
B. 2 and 3 are correct
C. 1, 2 and 3 are correct
D. 1, 2, 3, and 4 are correct
26. Earliest finish of an activity is always
a) greater than earliest event time of the following node
b) less than earliest event time of the following node
c) less than or equal to earliest event time of the following node
d) greater than or equal to earliest event time of the following node
27, Latest start of an activity is always
a) greater than or equal to latest event time of preceding node
b) less than or equal to latest event time of preceding node
c) equal to latest event time of preceding node
d) less than latest event time of preceding node
28. Which of the following statements regarding critical paths is true?
a. The shortest of all paths through the network is the critical path.
b. Some activities on the critical path may have slack.
c. Every network has exactly one critical path.
d. On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all with exactly the same duration.

ANSWER
1-DACCB 6-CBACD 11-DCBCA 16. CBDBC 21-AABBD 26. CAD