Table 9.14
The department of philosophy at a university in Oregon must allocate six faculty members to their new offices.The following trip matrix indicates the expected number of contacts per day made between professors.Also shown on the right is a sketch of the available office spaces (1 through 6)for the six faculty members.Assume equally sized offices.The distance between office 1 and office 2 (as well as the distance between office 1 and 3)is one unit of distance.Please measure by rectilinear distance.
Trips Between Departments
Layout of Available Offices

-Use the information in Table 9.14.What is the local-distance score if the faculty members are assigned as follows? (Still assume rectilinear distance. )
A)less than or equal to 50
B)greater than 50 but less than or equal to 55
C)greater than 55 but less than or equal to 60
D)more than 60

Question

Table 9.14
The department of philosophy at a university in Oregon must allocate six faculty members to their new offices.The following trip matrix indicates the expected number of contacts per day made between professors.Also shown on the right is a sketch of the available office spaces (1 through 6)for the six faculty members.Assume equally sized offices.The distance between office 1 and office 2 (as well as the distance between office 1 and 3)is one unit of distance.Please measure by rectilinear distance.
Trips Between Departments
  Layout of Available Offices
 
-Use the information in Table 9.14.What is the local-distance score if the faculty members are assigned as follows? (Still assume rectilinear distance. ) 
A)less than or equal to 50 
B)greater than 50 but less than or equal to 55 
C)greater than 55 but less than or equal to 60 
D)more than 60

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate the local-distance score, we need to multiply the number of trips between professors by the distance between their offices and then add up all the products. For example, the score for faculty members 1 and 2 would be (3 x 1) = 3 because they make three trips per day and their offices are one unit apart. Calculating all the scores and adding them up, we get a total local-distance score of 58, which falls into the range of 55 to 60, so the answer is choice C. The best choice would be to assign faculty members 1 and 2 to offices 1 and 2, faculty members 3 and 4 to offices 3 and 4, and faculty members 5 and 6 to offices 5 and 6, as this minimizes the total local-distance score.

Table 9.14 The Department of Philosophy at a University in Oregon Must