Understanding And Optimizing Business Systems
There are currently 4 recycling facilities (A, B, C and D) operating in the city of Glasgow. In addition, the Glasgow city council is considering 2 potential locations E and F to locate their recycling facilities. Facilities at these locations can be opened and operated at a cost of £75,000 per facility. This expansion is to support their burgeoning metropolitan city. They have divided their city into 10 zones. Each zone has a collection point where they collect recyclable waste from the residents of that zone. The expected amount of waste material collected in these 10 zones is given in the data file. The estimated recycling cost at a facility for the materials collected from a specific zone (per kg) is also provided in the file. This variation occurs because the recycling cost incorporates various components such as transportation cost, wages, grades of the recycling materials collected, etc. In addition, there is a restriction on how many kilograms of waste material that can be processed by a particular facility. The waste material that cannot be recycled has to be disposed at a cost of £16.25/kg.
They are currently considering the following two options:
a. Do not open any new facilities and use only current facilities.
b. Open facilities in E and F in addition to current facilities.
The management would like to hire you for your consulting services as an Operational Research Analyst to advise them on which option they should take forward and why. You need to prepare an Excel file with two sheets for two models. In addition to the Excel file, you need to send them a 1–page summary letter, where you explain them briefly your approach and recommendation along with appropriate justification. (Note: The administrators have business degrees and are therefore not familiar with technical terms, so your letter should not involve any technical terms.)
(Each model is worth 25 marks and the summary letter is worth 50 marks)
