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ADMG2018 Homework 1 Tr.1 2018

1.) How is the efficiency of sample information computed? 2.) Kenneth Brown is the principal owner of Brown Oil, Inc. After quitting his university teaching job, Ken has been able to increase his annual salary by a factor of over 100. At the present time, Ken is forced to consider purchasing some more equipment for Brown Oil because of competition. His alternatives are shown in the following table:

For example, if Ken purchases a Sub 100 and if there is a favorable market, he will realize a profit of $300,000. On the other hand, if the market is unfavorable, Ken will suffer a loss of $200,000. The Lubricant is an expensive oil newsletter to which many oil giants subscribe, including Ken Brown (see Problem 3-17 for details). In the last issue, the letter described how the demand for oil products would be extremely high. Apparently, the American consumer will continue to use oil products even if the price of these products doubles. Indeed, one of the articles in the Lubricant states that the chances of a favorable market for oil products was 70%, while the chance of an unfavorable market was only 30%. Ken would like to use these probabilities in determining the best decision. (a) What decision model should be used? (b) What is the optimal decision?

(c) Ken believes that the $300,000 figure for the Sub 100 with a favorable market is too high. How much lower would this figure have to be for Ken to change his decision made in part (b)? 3.) Today’s Electronics specializes in manufacturing modern electronic components. It also builds the equipment that produces the components. Phyllis Weinberger, who is responsible for advising the president of Today’s Electronics on electronic manufacturing equipment, has developed the following table concerning a proposed facility:

(a) Develop an opportunity loss table.

(b) What is the minimax regret decision?

4.) Megley Cheese Company is a small manufacturer of several different cheese products. One of the products is a cheese spread that is sold to retail outlets.Jason Megley must decide how many cases of cheese spread to manufacture each month. The probability that the demand will be six cases is 0.1, for 7 cases is 0.3, for 8 cases is 0.5, and for 9 cases is 0.1. The cost of every case is $45, and the price that Jason gets for each case is $95. Unfortunately, any cases not sold by the end of the month are of no value, due to spoilage. How many cases of cheese should Jason manufacture each month? 5.) Farm Grown, Inc., produces cases of perishable food products. Each case contains an assortment of vegetables and other farm products. Each case costs $5 and sells for $15. If there are any cases not sold by the end of the day, they are sold to a large food processing company for $3 a case. The probability that daily demand will be 100 cases is 0.3, the probability that daily demand will be 200 cases is 0.4, and the probability that daily demand will be 300 cases is 0.3. Farm Grown has a policy of always satisfying customer demands. If its own supply of cases is less than the demand, it buys the necessary vegetables from a competitor. The estimated cost of doing this is $16 per case. (a) Draw a decision table for this problem. (b) What do you recommend?

6.) The Technically Techno company has several patents for a variety of different Flash memory devices that are used in computers, cell phones, and a variety of other things. A competitor has recently introduced a product based on technology very similar to something patented by Technically Techno last year. Consequently, Technically Techno has sued the other company for copyright infringement. Based on the facts in the case as well as the record of the lawyers involved, Technically Techno believes there is a 40% chance that it will be awarded $300,000 if the lawsuit goes to court. There is a 30% chance that they would be awarded only $50,000 if they go to court and win, and there is a 30% chance they would lose the case and be awarded nothing. The estimated cost of legal fees if they go to court is $50,000. However, the other company has offered to pay Technically Techno $75,000 to settle the dispute without going to court. The estimated legal cost of this would only be $10,000. If Technically Techno wished to maximize the expected gain, should they accept the settlement offer? 7.) Jim Sellers is thinking about producing a new type of electric razor for men. If the market were favorable, he would get a return of $100,000, but if the market for this new type of razor were unfavorable, he would lose $60,000. Since Ron Bush is a good friend of Jim Sellers, Jim is considering the possibility of using Bush Marketing Research to gather additional information about the market for the razor. Ron has suggested that Jim either use a survey or a pilot study to test the market. The survey would be a sophisticated questionnaire administered to a test market. It will cost $5,000. Another alternative is to run a pilot study. This would involve producing a limited number of the new razors and trying to sell them in two cities that are typical of American cities. The pilot study is more accurate but is also more expensive. It will cost $20,000. Ron Bush has suggested that it would be a good idea for Jim to conduct either the survey or the pilot before Jim makes the decision concerning whether to produce the new razor. But Jim is not sure if the value of the survey or the pilot is worth the cost. Jim estimates that the probability of a successful market without performing a survey or pilot study is 0.5. Furthermore, the probability of a favorable survey result given a favorable market for razors is 0.7, and the probability of a favorable survey result given an unsuccessful market for razors is 0.2. In addition, the probability of an unfavorable pilot study given an unfavorable market is 0.9, and the probability of an unsuccessful pilot study result given a favorable market for razors is 0.2. (a) Draw the decision tree for this problem without the probability values. (b) Compute the revised probabilities needed to complete the decision, and place these values in the decision tree.

(c) What is the best decision for Jim? Use EMV as the decision criterion. 8.) The Long Island Life Insurance Company sells a term life insurance policy. If the policy holder dies during the term of the policy, the company pays $100,000. If the person does not die, the company pays out nothing and there is no further value to the policy. The company uses actuarial tables to determine the probability that a person with certain characteristics will die during the coming year. For a particular individual, it is determined that there is a 0.001 chance that the person will die in the next year and a 0.999 chance that the person will live and the company will pay out nothing. The cost of this policy is $200 per year. Based on the EMV criterion, should the individual buy this insurance policy? How would utility theory help explain why a person would buy this insurance policy? 9.) In the past few years, the traffic problems in Lynn McKell’s hometown have gotten worse. Now, Broad Street is congested about half the time. The normal travel time to work for Lynn is only 15 minutes when Broad Street is used and there is no congestion. With congestion, however, it takes Lynn 40 minutes to get to work. If Lynn decides to take the expressway, it will take 30 minutes regardless of the traffic conditions. Lynn’s utility for travel time is: 𝑈(15 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠) = 0.9, 𝑈(30 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠) = 0.7, and 𝑈(40 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠) = 0.2 (a) Which route will minimize Lynn’s expected travel time? (b) Which route will maximize Lynn’s utility?

(c) When it comes to travel time, is Lynn a risk seeker or a risk avoider? 10.) Coren Chemical, Inc., develops industrial chemicals that are used by other manufacturers to produce photographic chemicals, preservatives, and lubricants. One of their products, K-1000, is used by several photographic companies to make a chemical that is used in the film-developing process. To produce K1000 efficiently, Coren Chemical uses the batch approach, in which a certain number of gallons is produced at one time. This reduces setup costs and allows Coren Chemical to produce K-1000 at a competitive price. Unfortunately, K-1000 has a very short shelf life of about one month. Coren Chemical produces K-1000 in batches of 500 gallons, 1,000 gallons, 1,500 gallons, and 2,000 gallons. Using historical data, David Coren was able to determine that the probability of selling 500 gallons of K-1000 is 0.2. The probabilities of selling 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 gallons are 0.3, 0.4, and 0.1, respectively. The question facing David is how many gallons to produce of K-1000 in the next batch run. K-1000 sells for $20 per gallon. Manufacturing cost is $12 per gallon, and handling costs and warehousing costs are estimated to be $1 per gallon. In the past, David has allocated advertising costs to K-1000 at $3 per gallon. If K-1000 is not sold after the batch run, the chemical loses much of its important properties as a developer. It can, however, be sold at a salvage value of $13 per gallon. Furthermore, David has guaranteed to his suppliers that there will always be an adequate supply of K-1000. If David does run out, he has agreed to purchase a comparable chemical from a competitor at $25 per gallon. David sells all of the chemical at $20 per gallon, so his shortage means that David loses the $5 to buy the more expensive chemical. (a) Develop a decision tree of this problem. (b) What is the best solution?

(c) Determine the expected value of perfect information.