Problem Set
Sensitivity Analysis
1. The Gilford Feed Lots of Greeley, Colorado are trying to figure out the least expensive
combination of feeds that will give their cows all necessary nutrients. They can buy
wheat for 25 cents per pound and barley for 20 cents. They are counting on these grains
to provide the animals’ monthly requirements for three different nutrients, as shown in
the table below:
Nutrient in each grain (ounces/pound) Nutrient required
Nutrient Wheat Barley (ounces/month)
Protein 3 2 64
Calcium 2 3 80
Fiber 6 8 128
The company formulated a linear program to determine how many pounds of each grain
Gilford should give to each cow each month to minimize the cost of feed while still
providing at least as much of each nutrient as required.
The formulation is below. Also below is a graph of the problem, including a trial
objective function line and the solution point.
W = the pounds of wheat to use
B = the pounds of barley to use
Minimize Z = 0.25W + 0.20B
Subject to:
(A) 3W + 2B ≥ 64
(B) 2W + 3B ≥ 80
(C) 6W + 8B ≥ 128
W, B ≥ 0
a. If the price of wheat increases, will
the solution point eventually
change? If so, to what other point
will it change? How does this make
sense?
b. If the price of wheat decreases, will the solution point eventually change? If so,
to what other point will it change? Why does this make sense?
c. If the price of barley increases, will the solution point eventually change? If so, to
what other point will it change? Why does this make sense?
d. If the price of barley decreases, will the solution point eventually change? If so,
to what other point will it change? Why does this make sense?
e. If the amount of protein required for each cow increases slightly, how will the
cost of the feed ingredients for a cow change (increase, decrease, stay the same)?
How would we see that on the graph? Why does it make sense intuitively?
f. Is the shadow price for the protein constraint positive, negative, or zero?
g. If the amount of fiber required for each cow increases slightly, how will the cost
of the feed ingredients for a cow change (increase, decrease, stay the same)? How
would we see that on the graph? Why does it make sense intuitively?
h. Is the shadow price for the fiber constraint positive, negative, or zero?
2. The Gilford Feed Lots created a linear program to decide what combination of grains
to feed their cattle so as to provide them with their nutritional requirements at minimum
cost. The sensitivity report for the computer run of the model is below:
The cost of each grain is in dollars per pound. The amount to use is pounds of the grain
per month for each cow. The combination of grains used must meet minimum
requirements for ounces of protein, calcium and fiber each month.
a. What is the range of optimality for the cost per pound of wheat?
b. What will happen if the price of barley changes to an amount that is outside its
range of optimality?
c. What parts of the solution change if the price of barley increases by $0.02 per
pound? Exactly how much will each one of them change?
d. What is the shadow price for the constraint on the amount of protein in the
diet?
e. If the amount of protein a cow must have in a month changes to 70 ounces,
what parts of the solution change?
f. If the amount of protein a cow must have in a month changes to 70 ounces,
how much will the total cost of the grains change, if at all?
g. If the amount of calcium a cow must have in a month changes to 100 ounces,
how much will the total cost of the grains change, if at all?
h. If the amount of fiber a cow must have in a month drops to zero ounces, how
much will the total cost of the grains change? Explain why this answer makes sense.
3. Refsnyder Sound makes two models of wireless headsets: the Blaster and Whisperer.
Each model has a different amount of time required in each of the major production
processes, as follows:
Time required in each process (hours)
Model Molding Wiring Assembly
Blaster 0.5 3 2
Whisperer 1.5 1 4
Total hours
available 750 1,150 1,300
As also shown in the table, there is a set number of hours of time available in each
process. The profit from one unit of each product is $9 (Blaster), and $12 (Whisperer)
respectively. Refsnyder must make at least 50 Blasters because it has a prior
commitment to supply them, but otherwise it can make and sell as many of each model as
it wants. Refsnyder has formulated this problem and solved it graphically. The
formulation is below. So is the graph of the problem with a trial objective function line
and a circle around the solution point.
B = the number of Blasters to make
W = the number of Whisperers to make
Maximize Z = 9B + 12W
Subject to:
(A) 0.5B + 1.5W ≤ 750
(B) 3.0B + 1.0W ≤ 1150
(C) 2.0B + 4.0W ≤ 1300
(D) B ≥ 50
B, W ≥ 0
a. Judging by the graph, about how
many Blasters and how many
Whisperers are recommended by
the solution?
b. If everything else stays the same, what types of changes in the profit per Blaster
and/or the profit per Whisperer could cause the solution to switch to a new
solution that recommends that Refsnyder make only Blasters? Explain intuitively
why it would make sense for these changes to lead to making only Blasters.
c. If everything else stays the same, what types of changes in the profit per Blaster
and/or the profit per Whisperer could cause the solution to switch to a new
solution that recommends that Refsnyder make only Whisperers? Explain
intuitively why this result makes sense.
d. If everything else stays the same, what types of changes in the right-hand side of
the Wiring constraint could cause the solution to switch to a new solution that
recommends that Refsnyder make only Blasters? Explain intuitively why this
result makes sense.
e. If everything else stays the same, what types of changes in the right-hand side of
the Molding constraint could cause the solution to switch to a new solution that
recommends that Refsnyder make only Blasters? Explain intuitively why this
result makes sense.
4. The Refsnyder Sound Company created and ran a linear program to figure out how
many of the its two amplifiers (the Blaster and the Whisperer) to make to maximize total
profit. The sensitivity report from the program is below:
The profit from each product is in dollars. Refsnyder is constrained in how many of each
product it makes by the number of hours available for each of the production operations:
molding, wiring, assembly. Each product requires some time in each operation.
a. How many of each product does the program say Refsnyder should produce?
b. If Refsnyder follows the program, how much total profit should it get.
c. Refsnyder is considering a change that would raise the profit on each Whisperer
by $2.00. If that happens, how many of each product should it produce? How
and how much would it change total profit?
d. As shown in the report, currently the Whisperer has a profit of $12 per unit. What
is the highest this profit could go without changing the recommended number of
units of each product to make?
e. Next period Refsnyder could have more hours of wiring time available—a total of
2000 hours of wiring time, to be exact. How and how much would this change
the company’s total profit?
f. As a different option, Refsnyder could hire extra workers to do assembly. With
them it would have 300 more assembly hours available. But it would also have to
pay a placement firm $1000 to hire the workers. Would this be worth the cost?
g. Yet another option is to shift workers from molding to assembly. This would
reduce the number of hours for molding by 300, and increase it for assembly by
300. If Refsnyder did this, how and how much would total profit change?
5. Tacqueria Acapulco plans to advertise its new fish tacos and needs to decide how
many television ads to buy and how many social media ads to buy. There is $4 million
available to pay for the advertising time and 1000 hours of staff time available to manage
the campaign. Each television ad will cost $100,000 to run and take 25 hours of staff
time to manage. Each TV ad will add sales of 50,000 taco. Each social media ad will
cost $50,000, take 12 hours of staff time, and add 30,000 tacos to sales.
a. Formulate and solve a linear program on the computer to determine how many
ads of each type to run so as to maximize total taco sales.
b. What would the sales from one television ad have to be before Tacqueria
Acapulco should run any?
c. What is the range of optimality for the number of tacos sold from each social
media ad?
d. Based on information in the sensitivity report, if each TV ad produced sales of
20,000 tacos, then how many TV and social media ads should the company run?
e. Based on information in the sensitivity report, if each social media ad produced
sales of 20,000 tacos, then how many TV and social media ads should the company run?
f. Based on information in the sensitivity report, if the company could spend $3
million on advertising (instead of $4 million), how and how much would total sales
change?
g. Based on information in the sensitivity report, if the company could spend $5
million on advertising (instead of $4 million), how and how much would total sales
change?
h. Based on information in the sensitivity report, if the company had 1200 hours
of staff time available (instead of 1000), how and how much would total sales change?
i. What is the range of feasibility for the staff time constraint?
6. Julian Constructors is a construction firm building a factory. It needs workers to lay
200,000 concrete blocks for the walls and must decide how many experienced masons
and how many masons-in-training to hire. Each full mason can lay 2,000 blocks in the
time available, and each mason-in-training can lay 1,000. An experienced mason will
receive $1,500 in benefits for working on the project, and a mason-in-training will
receive $1,000 in benefits. The total budget for benefits is $180,000. Julian wants to
minimize the total wages it pays on the project, and each full mason gets $8,000 in wages
while each mason-in-training gets $3,000.
a. Formulate and solve a linear program on the computer to determine how many
masons of each type to hire so as to minimize total wages.
b. How much can the wage for an experienced mason increase before the
program will recommend changing the mix of masons to hire? How much can it
decrease?
c. How much does the wage for a mason-in-training have to decrease before the
program recommends hiring any of them?
d. Based on the sensitivity report, how and how much will total wages change if
the wage for a mason-in-training increases by $500?
e. Based on the sensitivity report, how and how much will total wages change if
the wage for a mason-in-training increases by $1500?
f. What is the range of optimality for the wage of a mason-in-training?
g. What is the range of feasibility for the benefits constraint?
h. Based on the sensitivity report, if the number of blocks that must be installed
increases to 230,000, how and how much will total wages change?
i. Based on the sensitivity report, if the amount of money available to pay
benefits increases to $195,000, how and how much will total wages change?
j. If the amount of money available to pay benefits decreases to $140,000, how
and how much will total wages change?