Quantitative Methods of Management

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

The classes are theoretical-practical, where each subject starts with the basic concepts and models, giving then special emphasis to solving exercises. Students are encouraged to be active participants in the analysis of the exercises, in order to develop their modeling skills and critical sense, allowing them to handle more complex cases.

Classes also include a laboratory component using computers. Spreadsheets and the Solver of Excel are used to solve the problems.

The assessment consists of final exam.

Learning Outcomes

The first aim of the course is that students acquire competence in modeling problems, as an important foundation in order that they are prepared to acquire more sophisticated skills to employ management science.

It is intended that the students understand what is a model and the assumptions underlying its application; build models for decision support; know how to assess the application of a model.

The skills to be developed are the following:

• abstraction

• quantitative reasoning skills

• formal modeling skills (using mathematical models)

• ability to build and analyze models on one’s own

Specific objectives: at the end of the course the student should be able of

• formulating optimization problems using linear and integer programming models;

• identifying problems with a network structure;

• solving problems using suitable software and interpreting results.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

• Models: purpose, limitations and assumptions.

• Formulation of linear and integer programming problems, including transportation and assignment problems.

• Network optimization models: minimum cost flow, shortest path, minimum spanning tree and maximum flow. Formulation of network problems. The PRIM algorithm to solve the minimum spanning tree problem.

• Formulation of linear programming problems with binary variables to represent decisions ‘yes-no’, disjunctive constraints, K out of N constraints must hold, fixed charge or setup cost, etc. Formulation of location-routing problems.

• Solving problems in computer using the Solver of Microsoft Excel. Interpretation of results and sensitivity analysis.

• Brief overview of different types of approaches to deal with optimization problems and recent developments in the area: exact vs. heuristic methods, traditional approaches and meta-heuristics.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria João Teixeira Gomes Alves

Assessment Methods

final exam
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

WILLIAMS, H. P. — Model building in mathematical programming. 3rd ed. rev. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

HILLIER, Frederick S.; LIEBERMAN, Gerald J. — Introdução à pesquisa operacional. 8ª ed. São Paulo: McGraw-Hill Interamericana do Brasil, 2006.

COSTA, João Paulo; ALVES, Maria João; CLÍMACO, João Namorado - Exercícios para as aulas de Investigação Operacional. Coimbra: FEUC, 1996.

FIGUEIRA, José; SILVA, Carlos Gomes da — Problemas de programação linear, inteira e inteira-mista. Coimbra: FEUC, 2004.