Jon Wayne is in the dessert making business. He produces two special “dessert boxes”: (1) Cherry Pop and (2) Chocolate Lover. His operating expenses total $2,000 per week. Jon is supported by three staff members, who are each responsible for different parts of the dessert box production process.

• Bobo is responsible for ingredient mixing;

• Samuel is in charge of decorating the desserts; and

• Nancy is the hardest worker of the three. She packages the desserts with great care.

The working capacities of these three workers are as follows:

Activity (Person Assigned) Estimated minutes per week

Mixing (Bobo) 2,400

Decorating (Samuel) 2,400

Packaging (Nancy) 2,400

Other relevant information for the two products appear below:

                               Cherry Pop      Chocolate Lover

Price per box            $14.00           $12.00

Direct materials        $2.00               $1.50

Demand     per week 500        boxes 400 boxes

Required time required in each activity per box (in minutes) is presented below:

                Cherry Pop     Chocolate Lover

Mixing          2                           2

Decorating   2                          3

Packaging    4                           3

(a) Identify the binding constraint of Jon Wayne’s business. Show all working.

(b) Based on the constraint you identified, what is the production mix that would maximise profit under current production conditions? Show all workings.

(c) Identify two actions that could be undertaken to ‘elevate’ the constrain you identified in part (a). Explain how the actions you identified will elevate the current constraint.