Julia’s Food Booth 1

Quantitative Methods - MAT540

Case Analysis Paper

Julia’s Food Booth

Chapter 3, page 109

Student Name

Date

Professor ____________________
Strayer University

Parameters/Background

The case study involving Julia’s food booth …. (provide background and

parameters very similar to an Executive Summary in a Business Report).

Julia is considering leasing a food booth outside Tech Stadium at home (6) football

games.

If she clears $1000 in profit for each game she believes it will be worth leasing the

booth.

$1000 per game to lease the booth

$600 to lease a warming oven

She has $1500 to purchase food for first game and will for remaining 5 games she will

purchase her ingredients with money made from previous game.

Each pizza costs $6 for 8 slices which is ? per slice, and she will sell it for $1.50
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Each hot dog costs 0.45, and she will sell it for $150

Each BBQ Sandwich costs 0.90, and she will sell it for $2.25

There are Food Cost, Oven and Ratio Constraints that include:

QM assessment (Describe the Excel Solver and/or QM for Windows tool input)

Pizza Slices x1 Hot Dogs x2 BBQ x3

RHS

Maximize
Food Costs <=
Oven Space <= 55296
Hot Dog to BBQ ratio demand >= 0
Pizza to Hot Dog and BBQ ratio demand >=
0

Equation form (fill in coefficients, amounts, etc.)

Maximize Z = 0.75 Pizza Slices x1 + 1.05 Hot Dogs x2 + 1.35 BBQ x3

Food Cost Constraint: $0.75 Pizza Slices x1 + $0.45 Hot Dogs x2 + $0.90 BBQ x3 <=
1500

Oven Space Constraint: 24.50 Pizza Slices x1 + 16 Hot Dogs x2 + 25 BBQ x3 <=
55296

Hot Dog to BBZ ratio Constraint: -x2 + 2x3 >= 0

Pizza to Hot Dog and BBQ Constraint: -x1 + x2 - x3 >= 0

Linear Programming Results (from Excel Solver and/or QM for Windows):

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Optimal Value (Z) = $2250

Ranging

Case Study Questions

A. Formulate and solve a linear programming model for Julia that will help you advise

her if she should lease the booth.

Answer:

Variables:

x1 – Pizza Slices

x2 – Hot Dogs

x3 – Barbeque Sandwiches

Subject to:

$0.75×1 + $0.45×2 + $0.90×3 ≤ $1,500

24×1 + 16×2 + 25×3 ≤ 55,296 in2 of oven space

x1 ≥ x2 + x3 (changed to –x1 + x2 + x3 ≤ 0 for constraint)

x2/x3 ≥ 2 (changed to –x2 +2×3 ≤ 0 for constraint)

x1, x2, x3 ≥ 0

Solution:

Variable | Status | Value |

X1 | Basic | 1250 |
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X2 | Basic | 1250 |

X3 | NONBasic | 0 |

slack 1 | NONBasic | 0 |

slack 2 | Basic | 5296.0 |

slack 3 | NONBasic | 0 |

slack 4 | Basic | 1250 |

Optimal Value (Z) | | 2250 |

Conclusion: If Julia were to open a food booth at her college’s home football games,

her optimal value would be $2250 with Pizza x1 value 1250 Hot dogs x2 value of 1250

and BBQ x3 value of 0.

B. If Julia were to borrow some more money from a friend before the first game to

purchase more ingredients, could she increase her profit? If so, how much should she

borrow and how much additional profit would she make? What factor constrains her

from borrowing even more money than this amount (indicated in your answer to the

previous question)?

Answer:

Yes, Julia would increase her profit if she borrowed some more money from a friend.
The shadow price, or dual value, is $1.50 for each additional dollar that she earns. The
upper limit given in the model is $1,658.88, which means that Julia can only borrow
$158.88 from her friend, giving her an additional profit of $238.32.

After solving the linear program in QM and utilizing the ranging function (see ranging

function in QM assessment) the upper bound for food costs is $1658.88.

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Since Julia already is starting with $1500 for food cost, she could increase her profit and

the most she should borrow from her friend is $ 158.88.

If she borrowed money from her friend the additional amount of profit she could

generate is $238.32.

This is determined because when looking in the ranging section of the solution, the dual

value is $1.50. This means it is worth $ 158.88 to Julia for each additional dollar that

she receives. So with this is mind, we can conclude that Julia would increase her profit,

if she borrows some money.

The factor that constrains her from borrowing even more money is Julia should not
borrow more money, there would be no profit.
..

Conclusion:

C. When Julia looked at the solution in (A), she realized that it would be physically

difficult for her to prepare all the hot dogs and barbecue sandwiches indicated in this

solution. She believes she can hire a friend of hers to help her for $100 per game.

Based on the results in (A) and (B), is this something you think she could reasonably do

and should do?

Answer:

Yes, I believe Julia should hire her friend for $100 per game. In order for Julia to
prepare the hot dogs and barbeque sandwiches needed in a short period of time to
make her profit, she needs the additional help. Also, with her borrowing the extra
$158.88 from her friend, Julia would be able to pay her friend for the time spent per
game helping with the food booth.
Maximum Profit $ 2,250.00

Booth Rent per game $ (1,000.00)

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Warming Oven 600 for total of 6 home $ (100.00)

games 600/6 =100

Profit for the 1st Game|$ 1,150.00

Profit for the 1st Game $ 1,150.00

Wants to clear $1,000

Difference |$ 150.00

Hires a Friend |$ 100.00

Difference $ 50.00

If Julia hires a friend she would still make a profit of $50 and she is still clearing $1000,
so it is worth leasing the booth. If it is too much work for her, I think she should hire her
friend.

Conclusion:

D. Julia seems to be basing her analysis on the assumption that everything will go as

she plans. What are some of the uncertain factors in the model that could go wrong

and adversely affect Julia’s analysis? Given these uncertainties and the results in (A),

(B), and (C), what do you recommend that Julia do?

Answer/Conclusion:

A noteworthy uncertainty that could play a component in Julia's investigation in climate.

Climate is dependably un- unsurprising and it could be sunny one day and sprinkling the
following. In the event that the climate is blustery, there may not be as large of a swarm
as there is on a decent day. The climate may likewise be excessively cool or
excessively hot and amusement supporters may not have any desire to consume before
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and amid half time.2nd instability she is depending on a companion to help her on the
grounds that its an excessive amount of work. In the event that her companion is not
able to help her she would need to discover another person to help at the same cost or
less expensive. This may not be possible.3rd instability, shouldn't we think about the
expense of things like, napkins, ketchup etc.What amount would these things cost her?
On the off chance that you don't have what a client needs to put on their sustenance,
they could go somewhere else, she could lose a few benefit

Conclusions/Final thoughts