Module Code: MGT3011
Coursework Code: 1
Module Title: Decision Sciences and Optimisation
Date Available: 20 October 2025
Submission details: Thursday, 18 December 2025, 12pm (noon)
Electronic submission only through Blackboard
Students should note that the time of submission is taken from once the document has been successfully uploaded and confirmed – this may take more than five minutes during busy periods. Late penalties will be applied to any work submitted from 12.01pm on Thursday, 18 December 2025 onwards. Details of how to calculate a late penalty can be found in the UG Handbook. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure the document/file has uploaded successfully.
When submitting students must:
1. Include a completed cover sheet (available from Blackboard)
2. Use ‘Student Number, MGT3011-1’ (e.g. 150011001, MGT3011-1) as the document’s file name and also as the Assignment Title in Turnitin.
Contribution to Final Mark for Module: 40%
Maximum Word Length: 1600 words
The overall maximum word length will be equal to 1600 words, for the whole coursework. The coursework is organised in two parts (Part A and Part B). No strict indication on how many words devote to the first or second part are provided, as this is a decision of the student. It could be reasonable to utilise 1100 words for the first part and 500 words for Part B, but this is not mandatory, as the decision is left to the student, as far as the overall word count of the coursework does not exceed 1600 words.
Word count is for the main body of the text and excludes the reference list, appendices, screenshot captions, tables, charts, index/table of content. If you exceed the word length you will be penalised. For details see the Management School Handbooks. Student Handbook
Please note that SUMS does not have a word count tolerance - it is a stated maximum as outlined above.
Requirements:
Part A: Decision Support Systems in real-word management.
Identify and select a paper from the literature on Decision Sciences, Operational Research and Decision Support Systems. The selected paper has to present the following characteristics:
Presenting a real-world challenge faced by a specific company or organisation;
The challenge can be defined as semi-structured decision making problem;
The design, development and implementation of an optimisation-based active Decision Support System (DSS) is described;
The measurable benefits of the DSS implementation are clearly presented and discussed in the paper.
Once you select and read the paper, you are required to critically analyse and produce a report on the considered case study, by answering to the following questions:
In what way the challenge faced by the company can be defined as complex?
Why the challenge could be reconducted to a semi-structured decision problem?
Why they implemented a DSS?
Which were the relevant characteristics of the model component for the DSS described in the paper?
Which were the relevant characteristics of the data component for the DSS in the paper?
Which were the relevant characteristics of the GUI component for the DSS in the paper (*if applicable, namely if some elements of the GUI are presented and discussed in the paper)?
Which were the measured real-world benefits of applying the DSS?
Was it worth it or not, in your opinion, and why?
VERY IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. It is compulsory to start your report by including the complete reference and web link to the paper you selected. Failing to include the complete reference and link might result in a hard-fail for this part of the coursework.
2. You should complement your claims and statements in the report with punctual signposts - references to sections and page numbers of the selected paper - where such claims and statement can be found and verified. For instance you can write: “Developing such a tailored DSS led the XYZ (name) company to increasing their profits by around 10% (see section x.y at page xx)”. Omitting to include punctual signposts might result in failing this part of the coursework.
3. You can also use and refer to literatures, textbooks, reports and journal articles to frame. your arguments and support your views.
Part B: Use of IBM ILOG CPLEX to solve a Minimum Cost Flow Problem instance.
Consider your individual data-sheet describing the scheme of a Minimum Cost Flow problem, including details on a Supply Network structure, costs, supply and demand data;
Identify the appropriate model to be used among the examples of the IBM ILOG CPLEX optimisation suite and briefly recall its characteristics;
Translate the provided individual datasheet into a dataset to feed this model (dataset to be included in your report as appendix A);
Execute the optimisation process and export the results (results to be included in your report as appendix B);
Provide a qualitative description of the optimal solution and the characteristics of the computational process;
Based on the outcomes of the optimisation process, perform. a managerial analysis to identify where to invest resources in order to improve the performance.