Sheep ltd produces a line of handmade sheep products. At present, the company is producing Shirts, Joggers and jumpers. The predicted demand for these three items over a six-month planning horizon is as follows: Month Shirts Joggers Jumpers Number of working days 1 22 2,500 1,250 240 2 10 2,600 680 380 3 19 2,000 1,625 110 4 24 3,400 745 275 5 21 3,400 835 126 6 17 1,800 375 45 The Shirts require an average of two hours to produce, the Joggers three hours and the jumpers seven hours. All the workers have the skills to work on any item. Sheep Itd has 50 full-time permanent employees who each have a share in the firm and cannot be fired. Permanent workers earn 12.50 per hour and work 7 hours per day (regular time). They can also do overtime (up to 3 hours per day) and earn during overtime 15.50 per hour. Recruiting extra permanent workers costs 3000 per worker. The cost of holding one aggregate unit of production in inventory for one month is 0.80. At the start of month 1, there is a beginning inventory of 400 Shirts, 310 Joggers and 350 jumpers. There are no ending inventory requirements and stockouts are not permitted. (b) Ignoring the overtime option for the permanent staff, what would be the size of the permanent workforce required (i.e., the minimum constant workforce plan) to satisfy the demand for the coming six months using regular time only? Calculate the monthly production and inventory levels and all the relevant costs for this plan, and visualize your plan in an appropriate diagram. Do you think that it is a good idea to bring the permanent workforce to this new level? Why (not)?| Sheep ltd produces a line of handmade sheep products. At present, the company is producing Shirts, Joggers and jumpers. The predicted demand for these three items over a six-month planning horizon is as follows: Month Shirts Joggers Jumpers Number of working days 1 22 2,500 1,250 240 2 10 2,600 680 380 3 19 2,000 1,625 110 4 24 3,400 745 275 5 21 3,400 835 126 6 17 1,800 375 45 The Shirts require an average of two hours to produce, the Joggers three hours and the jumpers seven hours. All the workers have the skills to work on any item. Sheep Itd has 50 full-time permanent employees who each have a share in the firm and cannot be fired. Permanent workers earn 12.50 per hour and work 7 hours per day (regular time). They can also do overtime (up to 3 hours per day) and earn during overtime 15.50 per hour. Recruiting extra permanent workers costs 3000 per worker. The cost of holding one aggregate unit of production in inventory for one month is 0.80. At the start of month 1, there is a beginning inventory of 400 Shirts, 310 Joggers and 350 jumpers. There are no ending inventory requirements and stockouts are not permitted. (b) Ignoring the overtime option for the permanent staff, what would be the size of the permanent workforce required (i.e., the minimum constant workforce plan) to satisfy the demand for the coming six months using regular time only? Calculate the monthly production and inventory levels and all the relevant costs for this plan, and visualize your plan in an appropriate diagram. Do you think that it is a good idea to bring the permanent workforce to this new level? Why (not)?|