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Useful for ASRB NET · ISS

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  1. Welcome
  2. Course Outcomes
  3. Units in this Course
  4. Recommended Textbooks

Welcome

This is the complete study package for Optimization Techniques — five powerful OR models for real-world decision problems: transportation, assignment, sequencing, game theory and project scheduling (CPM & PERT). Every concept has two worked examples.

Pre-requisite: Operations Research — particularly LPP and Simplex. Familiarity with matrices is essential.

Course Outcomes

  1. Solve logistics problems through transportation models.
  2. Find solutions to problems having space / capacity constraints.
  3. Minimise total elapsed time by efficient job allocation (sequencing).
  4. Find optimum usage of human resources via assignment.
  5. Find plausible solutions in random environments through game theory and network analysis.

Units in this Course

UNIT 1

Transportation Problem

Mathematical formulation; IBFS via North-West Corner, Least-Cost Entry & Vogel's Approximation; MODI method for optimality; degeneracy, unbalanced and maximization variants.

UNIT 2

Assignment Problem

Mathematical formulation; Hungarian method for balanced and unbalanced assignment problems; maximisation; restricted assignment.

UNIT 3

Sequencing Problem

Assumptions; Johnson's algorithm for n jobs × 2 machines; n × 3 machines; n × m machines; total elapsed time and idle time computation.

UNIT 4

Game Theory

Two-person zero-sum games; pure & mixed strategies; maxmin / minimax principles; saddle point; 2×2 games; graphical method for 2×n / m×2; dominance property.

UNIT 5

Network Scheduling

Network components, nodes & arcs, events & activities, construction rules; time calculations; Critical Path Method (CPM) and Programme Evaluation & Review Technique (PERT).

PRACTICAL

Practical Course (8 Experiments)

Hands-on problems on TP (NWCM, LCEM, VAM, MODI), assignment (Hungarian), sequencing (Johnson), CPM & PERT, game theory by dominance.

REFERENCE

Official Syllabus

Course outline, textbooks, references and exam blueprint.

Next course in learning order: Actuarial Statistics Applied statistics