Question 6.P.2: Assign nine automobile service departments to bays in a 3 × ......
Assign nine automobile service departments to bays in a 3 × 3 grid so that the closeness ratings in the following matrix are satisfied. (The unimportant and ordinary-importance ratings have been omitted to simplify the example.) The location of department 4 must be in the upper right-hand corner of the grid to satisfy a town ordinance.
Note that department 1 has many A ratings, making it a strong candidate for the center position in the grid. We can form a cluster of departments that should be close together (Figure 1):
Next, we can identify departmental pairings that should be avoided (Figure 2):
These departments should be spaced around the perimeter of the grid. After a bit of trial and error, the final grid shown below (Figure 3) emerged. Check it against the rating matrix to see if it satisfies the ratings.
