Educational Associates is upgrading its computing power. It will be installing

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    Educational Associates is upgrading its computing power. It will be installing new computers in the next 4 months across several departments of the company.
    The plan is to install in a staggered basis according to the schedule below. The numbers of users in the departments that have to be supported are indicated
    below:

    Month

    Department

    Number of users to be supported

    1

    Assessment

    50

    2

    Marketing

    60

    3

    Admin

    70

    4

    Others

    30

    The company is considering four types of computers to serve their needs. The following table shows the various computers the number of users that can be
    supported by a computer and the unit purchase costs.

    Computer type

    Number of users that can be supported

    Unit Purchase Cost

    Standard PC

    Up to 20

    $ 3000

    Enhanced PC

    Up to 40

    $ 5000

    Small Workstation

    Up to 100

    $ 12000

    Large Workstation

    Up to 1000

    $ 30000

    a. The company wants to determine the number and type of computers to purchase on a month-to-month basis. To
    do this formulate in Excel for each month the linear program to determine the number and type of computer to purchase in order to minimize the cost in that
    month that will support the required number of new users given the results in the preceding month. How many and which type of computers should be bought
    in each month? What is the total cost for all 4 months under this plan?

    b. Is it possible to purchase a larger computer in the initial months in order to support users in the final
    months? The company decides to evaluate the number and type of computers to purchase over the entire planning period rather than month-to-month basis.
    To do this you need to formulate in Excel the linear program to determine the number and types of computers to purchase in which months to minimize the total
    cost and support all new users. How many and what type of computers should be purchased in each month? What is the total cost of this plan?

    c. Why is there a difference between these two plans? Comment on this result.

    [Hint: The decision variables should be constrained to be integers].

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