The owner of FirstFashion, a small fashion and portrait photography shop in Singapore, has a staff allocation problem. The shop works essentially in the fashion business and has two main activities: One is taking pictures for models’ portrait books, and the other is assisting renowned fashion photographers in fashion shows at Marina Bay Sands. Of course, these tasks need some additional manpower, because they require Photoshop editing and the technical checking of cameras, lenses, and computers.

Besides the owner, Lin, who works full time, the shop employs three other staff: Wendy, Sandeep, and Kara. Although each employee is specialized for a specific job, when the necessity arises, all of them can be equally employed in four different tasks.

To encourage the employees to be flexible, Lin has decided to pay them hourly but differently according to the different tasks they perform. He has included himself in the calculations to be fair.

Here are FirstFashion’s staff hourly wages, differentiated according to the specific task they are performing.

Task A B C D Lin 8 6 5 7 Wendy 6 5 3 4 Sandeep 7 8 4 6 Kara 6 7 5 6 It is evident that some tasks will be more costly than others, and Lin has to consider this when deciding how to divide the tasks.

Taking this into account:

a. Suggest a network representation of the shop’s staff allocation. (Hint: It has to be drawn as an assignment problem.)

b. Help Lin solve the problem using Excel Solver or other software and identify an optimal cost solution. LO.1