The Belmont Company must produce 1,500 boxes of product A each year, 2,000 boxes of product B each year, and 500 boxes of product C each year. The Belmont Company works 250 days a year, and it can make a total of 16 boxes of product a day (any mix of the products A, B, and C). In the past, Belmont would spend the first of the year producing just product A, then producing just product B when all 1,500 boxes of product A were finished, and then switch over late in the year to pro- duce product C. However, the president of Belmont has decided that the company should follow the principles of lean operations, including smoothing production of the demand requirements of these three products into mixed-model scheduling.

a. When Belmont uses its traditional schedule, how many days does it spend mak- ing product A at the beginning of the year? When it switches then to product B, how many days does it spend producing that product? How many days are then required to finish the batch of product C?

b. If Belmont implements a perfectly smooth, mixed-model schedule, it will pro- duce the same mix of three products every day. How many of each product should be in this daily mix?

c. Ideally, in what order should this new daily mix be completed during the day?