How might Xerox be able to address the shortage of mechanical design engineers identified by the aggregate project planning analysis shown in Exhibit 4-9? List five ways Xerox could increase the capacity and five ways to reduce the demand for mechanical design engineers.

Lakes Project 6010 Project 595 Project Astro Project Resource Demand Resource Capacity Capacity Utilization 140% Capacity Utilization 120% Mechanical 88 Design Year Electrical Engineering Manufacturing Mechanical Design Electrical Engineering & Engineering Software/ Firmware Industrial -Design 25 300 269 184 105 250 250 200 100 120 % 108 % 92% 105% 125% Manufacturing Engineering Software/Firmware 2 10 8 Industrial Design Mechanical Design Electrical &&&8 Engineering 132 % 104 % Year 2 Mechanical Design Electrical Engineering Manufacturing Software/ 8 Engineering Industrial 8 Firmware Design 15 50 260 210 250 200 5 Manufacturing Engineering 6 40 2 126 Software/Firmware 6 100 105% 126 % 75 % 8 Industrial Design Mechanical Design Electrical Engineering Mechanical Design Electrical Engineering Year 3 Manufacturing un 8 Engineering Manufacturing Engineering Software/ 8 Firmware R286 Software/Firmware Industrial Design 2 8 Industrial Design Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 based on estimates of resource EXHIBIT 4-9 Aggregate resource planning can be achieved using a simple spreadsheet method demands over time. This example spreadsheet uses units of person-years, although smaller time units (quarters or months) are commonly used in practice. The associated chart highlights where capacity is insufficient to handle all of the projects. Product Planning