Always Rain Irrigation Inc. would like to determine capacity requirements for the next four years. Three types of sprinklers are available bronze 90 degrees nozzle, 180 nozzle degrees and 360 degrees nozzle. Management has forecasted demand for the next four years as follows: Yearly Demand (in 000s) Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Bronze 90 8 9 10 12 Bronze 180 4 6 7 9 Bronze 360 13 15 17 20 Each bronze machine requires two operators to run and can produce up to 8,000 sprinklers per year (300 working days) on two shift basis. The three types of sprinklers are made using the same equipments Currently, three bronze machines each of capacity 8,000 per year on two shift basis are in use. Capacity of machines (300 working days) on two shift basis available in the market are: Bronze machine 8,000 and 10,000 and 20,000 and 35,000; the 20,000 as well as the 35,000 capacity machines are the latest developed Manpower required for each new machine are the same as employed today, except the latest developed machines which require one operator only Further, the power cost per unit produced reduces by nearly 15 % on the newly developed machines. Policy of the company is to operate on two shifts third shift is for coping with exigencies. The lead time to get the machines installed and getting them operational is 6 months. Suggest the capacity required (machines and manpower) over the next four years. You may consider discarding the current available machines. Second hand machines are not available. Subcontracting the nozzles is not acceptable as a policy.

What are the alternatives ways we can use the machines and what will be our capacity decision for four years. As in in what combination do we use the machine to fulfill the demand of the machine keeping in mind the optimum use of resource