Hartford Plumbing Services specializes in two services: (1) 're-pipes,' where an existing house's water pipes are replaced with new pipes (usually copper or PEX pipe); and (2) the installation of tank-less water heaters. The company has six workers, each of whom can do re-pipes and/or tank-less installs. The table below gives the maximum number of water fixures that can be re-piped or the maximum number of tank-less installs they can do if they devote a 40 hour workweek to that activity. Assume that they can do any linear combination of the re-pipes and tank-less installs shown. Worker Re-pipes (fixtures) Tank-less installs Austin 15 6 Cody 8 5 Dallas 12 10 Lincoln 9 6 Pierre 16 Victoria 12 9 Austin, for example, could do 15 repipes or 9 tankless installs or any linear combination of the two, such as 5 repipes and 6 tankless installs. The table does not mean Austin can do 15 repipes and 9 tankless installs each week. 27 1. Which worker has the absolute advantage in doing repipes? 2. Which worker has the absolute advantage in tankless installs? 3. What is Victoria's opportunity cost of repiping a fixture, in terms of tankless installs foregone? 4. What is Lincoln's opportunity cost of a tankless install, in terms of repipes foregone? 5. Which worker has a comparative advantage in repipes?6. Which worker has a comparative advantage in tankless installs? Assuming the company uses the workers to maximize the production of one activity, given the level of the other activity, fill in the following table. You are given the number of repipes and need to calculate the maximum number of tankless installs possible given that number of repipes. You are essentially reporting five points along the company's production possibilities frontier. Record your answers to two decimal places. (Yes, partial repipes and tankless installs are allowed.) Number of repipes (fixtures) Number of tankless installs (enter as the answer to question 7) 15 (question 8) 30 (question 9) 45 (question 10) 60 (question 11) 72 Hint: Assign the 15 repipes to those workers with the lowest opportunity cost of repipes. At most, one person will be assigned to both repipes and tankless installs. This one is easy, as everyone is assigned to tankless installs.This part is similar to part 1, but instead of being given the number of repipes and tankless installs per 40 hour workweek, you are given the time per repipe or tankless install, in hours. Each worker at Hartford Plumbing Services works 40 hours. The productivity of the six workers differs from part 1. Worker Hours per re-pipe Hours per tan-kless install Austin 4.5 6.5 Cody 5 8 Dallas 3 4.5 Lincoln 2 4.5 Pierre 2.5 5 Victoria 3 4 12. If each worker split their time equally between repipes and tankless installs (i.e., devoted 20 hours to each), how many repipes could the company complete if all workers work a 40 hour week? (Partial repipes are allowed; enter your answer to one decimal place.) 13. If each worker split their time equally between repipes and tankless installs, how many tankless installs could the company complete if all workers work a 40 hour week? (Partial tankless installs are allowed; enter your answer to one decimal place.) 14. If you used the concept of comparative advantage to maximize the number of tankless installs given the number of repipes you gave in question (12), how many tankless installs could be produced? (You may find it easier to first convert the 'Hours per repipe' and 'Hours per tankless install' to 'Repipes per 40 hour workweek' and 'Tankless installs per 40 hour workweek,' then proceed as in part 1 of this assignment.) (Hint: If your answer is not greater than your answer to question 13, either your answer to 13 or your answer to this question must be incorrect.) 15. If you used the concept of comparative advantage to maximize the number of repipes given the number of tankless installs you gave in question (13), how many repipes could be produced
