Question

A company is constructing a new hostel facility. The company has hired you as part of the team to identify the best potential sites for the new facility. Your team identified four sites and have rated the important location factors for each site as follows: LOCATION FACTOR A 70 75 90 80 80 Proximity to Campus Student traffic Parking availability Plot size, terrain Infrastructure Off-campus accessibility Proximity to dining facilities Visitor traffic Landscape/aesthetics WEIGHT 0.23 0.22 0.16 0.12 0.10 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.02 SCORES (out of 100) B с 90 65 60 60 80 70 90 60 40 70 80 80 65 40 60 D 85 85 70 75 60 70 90 55 70 70 50 90 60 70 50 70 Required: a) What is the weighted score for the each location? (8 Marks) b) Which location will you recommend for the new hostel? Justify your choice. (4 Marks) c) If the location C has its score for infrastructure to be 80. Will the choice in (b) be the same? (4 Marks) d) Explain two (2) benefits for the best location selected for the hostel in (b). (4 Marks)

Answer 1

a)

We calculate the weighted score for the various factors for each location by multiplying the weight by their respective scores.

SCORES (out of 100) Location Factor B D A 70 75 c 65 WEIGHTED SCORES (out of 100) [Weight * Score] A B с D 16.1 20.7 14.95 19.55 16.5 17.6 13.2 18.7 14.4 9.6 12.8 11.2 90 85 80 60 85 90 60 80 70 Weight 0.23 0.22 0.16 0.12 0.10 0.06 0.05 80 70 90 75 9.6 8.4 10.8 Proximity to Campus Student traffic Parking availability Plot size, terrain Infrastructure Off-campus accessibiliy Proximity to Dining facilities Visitor traffic Landscape/ aesthetics 9 50 60 40 60 5 6 4 6 90 70 70 70 5.4 4.2 4.2 4.2 60 80 70 90 3 4 3.5 4.5 0.04 70 80 65 55 2.8 3.2 2.6 2.2 0.02 50 40 60 70 1 0.8 1.2 1.4 73.8 74.5 67.25 76.75

The weighted score is the sum of all the weighted scores of each location as in the above table.

Weighted Score for Location A = 73.8
Weighted Score for Location B = 74.5
Weighted Score for Location C = 67.25
Weighted Score for Location D = 76.75

b)

We will recommend location D for the new hostel. As we can see from the above table, location D is having the highest weighted score as compared to the weighted scores of the other locations. That is, it is having relatively higher score keeping in view the various location factors and their weightages.

c)

If the score for infrastructure of location C is changed to 80, the weighted score will become

67.25 - 4 + (0.10*80) = 71.25 [4 is the weighted score of location C's infrastructure]

We can see that the weighted score of location C is still lower than the weighted score of location D even if the score for infrasture becomes 80, so there will be no change in the initial choice made.

d)

Two benefits for the best location for the hostel selected, i.e. location D are -

• It is having the best student traffic as compared to the other locations. Location D has the highest weighted score in the student trafiic as compared to that of the other location's.
• The vistor traffic is also the best in the location D as compared to that of the other locations.