Quality versus costs. Almaden Bicycles has discovered a problem involving the welding of bicycle frames that costs the company $3,000 in waste and $1,500 in lost business per period. There are two alternative solutions. The first is to lease a new automated welder at a cost of $3,500 per period. The new welder would save Almaden $1,500 in waste and $1,000 in lost business. The second alternative is to hire an additional employee to manually weld the frames at a cost of $3,000 per period. This would save Almaden $2,500 in waste and $1,000 in lost business per period.

Which alternative should Almaden choose?