Planning activity workloads The Abby Corporation, a chain of department stores, estimates the standard workload at its retail outlets in terms of the time required for the activities of (1) hanging new inventory; (2) selling merchandise; (3) handling complaints, inquiries, and returns: (4) taking markdowns; and (5) counting inventory. The following are the estimated average times for each of these five activities:

The Abby Corporation uses these workload estimates to plan its staffing lev¬ els. Past experience indicates that it needs to provide for about 30% more time than the standard workload estimate to ensure that customer service is satisfac¬ tory. The Abby Corporation has a policy of hiring only full-time sales consultants working 40 hours a week. The following information pertains to the estimated levels for various activities cost drivers for the four weeks in June:

REQUIRED Determine the number of full-time equivalent sales consultants needed in each of these four weeks.(LO 1, 3)

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ACTIVITY Hanging new inventory Selling merchandise Handling complaints and returns Taking markdowns Counting inventory AVERAGE TIME REQUIRED 1 minute per piece hanged (HANG) 10 minutes per customer (CUST) '15 minutes per complaint (CMPL) 2 minutes per piece marked down (MARK) 0.5 minutes per piece counted (COUN)