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Summary of the problem ?

- Fabrics and Fall Fashions

From the tenth floor of her office building, Katherine Rally watches the swarms of New Yorkers fight their way through the streets infested with yellow cabs and the sidewalks littered with hot dog stands. On this sweltering July day, she pays particular attention to the fashions worn by the various women and wonders what they will choose to wear in the fall. Her thoughts are not simply random musings; they are critical to her work since she owns and manages TrendLines, an elite women's clothing company.

Today is an especially important day because she must meet with Ted Lawson, the production manager, to decide upon next month's production plan for the fall line. Specifically she must determine the quantity of each clothing item she should produce given the plant's production capacity, limited resources, and demand forecasts. Accurate planning for next month's production is critical to fall sales since the items next month will appear in stores during September, and women generally buy the majority of the fall fashions when they appear in September.

She turns back to her sprawling glass desk and looks at the numerous papers covering it. Her eyes roam across the clothing patterns designed almost six month ago, the of materials required for each pattern, and the lists of demand forecasts for each pattern determined by customer surveys at fashion shows. She remembers the hectic and sometimes nightmarish days of designing the fall line and presenting it at fashion shows in New York, Milan, and Paris. Ultimately, she paid $860,000 for their work on her fall line. With the cost of hiring runway models, hair stylists, and makeup artists, sewing and fitting clothes, building the set, choreographing and rehearsing the show, and renting the conference hall, each of the three fashion shows cost her additional $2,700,000.

She studies the clothing patterns and material requirements. Her fall line consists of both professional and casual fashions. She determined the prices for each clothing item by taking into account the quality and cost of material, the cost of labor and machining, the demand for the item, and the prestige of the TrendLines brand name.

The fall professional fashions include:

Clothing Item

Materials Requirements

Price

Labor & Machine Cost

Tailored wool slacks

3 yards of wool

2 yards of acetate for lining

$300

$160

Cashmere sweater

1.5 yards of cashmere

$450

$150

Silk blouse

1.5 yards of silk

$180

$100

Silk camisole

0.5 yards of silk

$120

$60

Tailored skirt

2 yads of rayon

1.5 yards of acetate for lining

$270

$120

Wool Blazer

2.5 yards of wool

1.5 yards of acetate for lining

$320

$140

Velvet Pants

3 yards of velvet

2 yards of acetate for lining

$350

$175

Cotton sweater

1.5 yards of cotton

$130

$60

Cotton miniskirt

0.5 yards of cotton

$75

$40

Velvet shirt

1.5 yards of velvet

$200

$160

Button-down blouse

1.5 yards of rayon

$120

$90

She knows that for next month, she has ordered 45,000 yards of wool, 28,000 yards of acetate, 9,000 yards of cashmere, 18,000 yards of silk, 30,000 yards of rayon, 20,000 yards of velvet, and 30,000 yards of cotton for production. The prices of the materials are as follows:

Material

Price per yard

Wool

$9.00

Acetate

$1.50

Cashmere

$60.00

Silk

$13.00

Rayon

$2.25

Velvet

$12.00

Cotton

$2.50

Any material that is not used in production can be sent back to the textile wholesaler for a full refund, although scrap material cannot be sent back to the wholesaler.

She knows that the production of both silk blouse and cotton sweater leaves leftover scraps of material. Specifically, for the production of one silk blouse or one cotton sweater, 2 yards of silk and cotton, respectively are needed. From these 2 yards, 1.5 yards are used for the silk blouse or the cotton sweater and 0.5 yard is left as scrap material. She does not want to waste the material, so she plans to use the rectangular scarp of silk or cotton to produce a silk camisole or cotton miniskirt, respectively. Therefore, whenever a silk blouse is produced, a silk camisole is also produced. Likewise, whenever a cotton sweater is produced, a cotton miniskirt is also produced. Note that it is possible to produce a silk camisole without producing a silk blouse and a cotton miniskirt without producing a cotton sweater.

The demand forecasts indicate that some items have limited demand. Specifically, because the velvet pants and velvet shirts are fashion fads, TrendLines has forecasted that it can sell only 5,500 pairs of velvet pants and 6,000 velvet shirts. TrendLines does not want to produce more than the forecasted demand because once the pants and shirts go out of style, the company cannot sell them. TrendLines can produce less than the forecasted demand, however since the company is not required to meet the demand. The cashmere sweater also has limited demand because it is quite expensive, and TrendLines knows it can sell at most 4,000 cashmere sweaters. The silk blouses and camisoles have limited demand because many women think silk is too hard to care for, and TrendLines projects that it can sell at most 12,000 silk blouses and 15,000 silk camisoles.

The demand forecasts also indicate that the wool slacks, tailored skirts and wool blazers have a great demand because they are basic items needed in every professional wardrobe. Specifically, the demand for wool slacks is 7,000 pairs of slacks, and the demand for wool blazers is 5,000 blazers. Katherine wants to meet at least 60 percent of the demand for these two items in order to maintain her loyal customer base and not lose business in the future. Although the demand for tailored skirts could not be estimated, Katherine feels she should make at least 2,800 of them