Reference no: EM132918349
The zoo is looking to create a satellite location, and you have been tasked with its design. A 44,000 square meters (m2) plot of land has already been selected. You need to choose the best allocation of space to maximize expected annual revenue.
Clearly, the animal habitats are critically important and have been estimated to generate $120 per m2 in annual revenue. These also use 0.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) per m2 in electricity annually.
The biggest revenue generator is the food court, which has been estimated to generate $160 per m2 in annual revenue. However, it consumes 2.5 kWh per m2 in electricity annually.
Another big revenue creator is the gift shop, which has been estimated to generate $140 per m2 in annual revenue. It consumes 1.25 kWh per m2 in electricity annually.
Finally, while walkways do not directly generate revenue, they do affect customer satisfaction. As such, they have been estimated to (indirectly) generate $30 per m2 in annual revenue. They only utilize 0.2kWh per m2 in electricity for lighting.
The facility's electrical service can provide up to 32,000 kWh of electricity per year.
Because animals are the main purpose, the food court and gift shop cannot use more than 12,000 m2 between them. However, there must be at least 6,000 m2 of walkways to get around.
1. Formulate your decision, being sure to include (and clearly indicate) the decision variables, objective function and all constraints. Note: You will actually make your decision in the next part, so this part is just about formulating the problem. You must write the proper mathematical expressions here, not the values as you would enter them into Excel.
2. What is the optimal choice for your decision? What value (objective) will it generate?
3. A new analysis estimates that gift shops actually generate $150 of annual revenue per m2. Will this change your optimal decision? Briefly explain how you found your answer.