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
[email protected]. 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
Veg. – I Veg. – II NV – I NV – II Extra Cheese
Regul ar 75 130 95 140 35
Size Mediu m 150 230 200 240 45
Larg e 260 310 310 340 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:
1. 2. 3. 4.
Alternative Combination Veg – I Regular, feast, without extra cheese Veg – I, Regular, non-feast, extra cheese Veg – l, Regular, non-feast, without extra cheese 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.
