EPBM XIII

IT Module – Final Examination

Time: 6:30 – 9:30 PM Marks: 100

This is a take-home examination. You should build a spreadsheet model for the
problem, save the Excel file in 2003 format under the name nnnnnn.xls, where
nnnnnn is your student id, and e-mail the spreadsheet to epbm_it@yahoo.in.
Deadline for submitting the file is 9:30 pm, June 4. This test is to be answered alone
and copying in any form will invite severe penalty. Files not following the naming
convention or e-mailed beyond deadline will not be evaluated.

Sulabh Supermarket
Sulabh supermarket is determined to please its customers with a customer
loyalty card. At present 30% of all shoppers are loyal to Sulabh. A loyal Sulabh
customer shops at Sulabh outlet 80% of the time. A non-loyal (Sulabh) customer
on the other hand shops 10% of the time. A typical customer spends Rs. 150 per
week and Sulabh is operating on a 4% profit margin. The customer loyalty card
will cost Sulabh an average of 10 paisa per rupee spent. We believe Sulabh’s
share of loyal customers will increase by an unknown amount between 2% and
10%. We also believe that the fraction of the time a loyal customer shops at
Sulabh will increase by an amount between 5% and 15%. Should Sulabh adopt a
customer loyalty card? Should Sulabh adopt the card if its profit margin in 8%
instead of 4%?

Customer Service at Pizza Kutir

The proprietor of Pizza Kutir has realized that a certain segment of his customers
consists of low budget customers, who before placing an order, state the
maximum amount (budget) they want to spend, and want to know which Pizza is
feasible within that amount. The proprietor was wondering whether he could
answer such quest ions using a spread sheet. He would like to experiment with
the idea by first developing a spreadsheet, considering only a subset of the
options that are offered by his menu card, and using some assumptions about
his customer.

Pizza Kutir offers four different types of Pizza (Veg-I, Veg-II, NV-I, NV-H), each in
three different sizes, regular, medium, or large. On any of the above types, the
customer can choose to have extra cheese, the cost of which depends on the
size of the Pizza. Furthermore, for an extra cost of Rs. 30, any of the above types
 can be ordered in what is called its feast-version (the non-feast version is called
the normal version).

The prices for the various type-size combinations and the extra costs for extra
cheese and feast-version are given in the following table. For example, one unit
of the NV-II Pizza in medium size, feast-version with extra cheese, costs Rs
240+45+30 = Rs.315. Similarly, one unit of large size, Veg-I with extra cheese,
normal (non-feast) version costs Rs. 260 + 65 + 0 = Rs. 325.

Type Size
Regul Mediu Larg
ar m e
Veg. – I 75 150 260
Veg. – II 130 230 310
NV – I 95 200 310
NV – II 140 240 340
Extra Cheese 35 45 65

Each of the 3 sizes is available in its feast version for Rs. 30 extra.

A number of other options such as toppings are usually offered, but can be
ignored for the task at hand. To further simplify the analysis, the proprietor
assumes that the low budget customers want the proprietor to suggest them
only alternatives each of which consists of one unit of a Pizza and that the
budget of a customer never exceeds the price of the costliest combination. In
case the budget permits several alternatives, the proprietor wants to rank the
alternatives in descending order of price, and indicate to the customer only the
top 3 alternatives.

For example, when a customer's budget is Rs 110, then the following four
combinations are feasible:

Alternative Combination
1. Veg – I Regular, feast, without extra cheese
2. Veg – I, Regular, non-feast, extra cheese
3. Veg – l, Regular, non-feast, without extra cheese
4. NV – I, Regular, non-feast, without extra cheese

However the proprietor suggests only combinations 2, 1 and 4 in that order.

Design a spreadsheet without a macro in where the user will be able to input a
customer’s budget and get as output the list of best three alternative
combinations (type of pizza, size, feast or non-feast and with/without extra
cheese) that can offered.