For each of the following decision-making problems, determine whether the problem involves constrained or unconstrained optimization; what the objective function is and, for each constrained problem, what the constraint is; and what the choice variables are.
a. We have received a foundation grant to purchase new PCs for the staff. You decide what PCs to buy.
b. We aren’t earning enough profits. Your job is to redesign our advertising program and decide how much TV, direct-mail, and magazine advertising to use. Whatever we are doing now isn’t working very well.
c. We have to meet a production quota but think we are going to spend too much doing so. Your job is to reallocate the machinery, the number of workers, and the raw materials needed to meet the quota.