You are the operations manager for a manufacturing plant that produces pudding food products. One of your important responsibilities is to prepare an aggregate plan for the plant. This plan is an important input into the annual budget process. The plan provides information on production rates, manufacturing labor requirements, and projected finished goods inventory levels for the next year. You make those little boxes of pudding mix on packaging lines in your plant. A packaging line has a number of machines that are linked by conveyors. At the start of the line, the pudding is mixed; it is then placed in small packets. These packets are inserted into the small pudding boxes, which are collected and placed in cases that hold 48 boxes of pudding. Finally, 160 cases are collected and put on a pallet. The pallets are staged in a shipping area from which they are sent to four distribution centers. Over the years, the technology of the packaging lines has improved so that all the different flavors can be made in relatively small batches with no setup time to switch between flavors. The plant has 15 of these lines, but currently only 10 are being used. Six employees are required to run each line. The demand for this product fluctuates from month to month. In addition, there is a seasonal component, with peak sales before Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter each year. To complicate matters, at the end of the first quarter of each year the marketing group runs a promotion in which special deals are made for large purchases. Business is going well, and the company has been experiencing a general increase in sales. The plant sends product to four large distribution warehouses strategically located in the United States. Trucks move product daily. The amounts shipped are based on maintaining target inventory levels at the warehouses. These targets are calculated based on anticipated !!! < > Aa Z The plant sends product to four large distribution warehouses strategically located in the United States. Trucks move product daily. The amounts shipped are based on maintaining target inventory levels at the warehouses. These targets are calculated based on anticipated weeks of supply at each warehouse. Current targets are set at two weeks of supply. In the past, the company has had a policy of producing very close to what it expects sales to be because of limited capacity for storing finished goods. Production capacity has been adequate to support this policy. A sales forecast for next year has been prepared by the marketing department. The forecast is based on quarterly sales quotas, which are used to set up an incentive program for the salespeople. Sales are mainly to the large U.S. retail grocers. The pudding is shipped to the grocers from the distribution warehouses based on orders taken by the salespeople. Page 266 Your immediate task is to prepare an aggregate plan for the coming year. The technical and economic factors that must be considered in this plan are shown next. E Forecast Demand by Quarter (1,000 = Case Units) 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 1st 2nd 3rd (1-13) (14-26) (27-39) 4th 1st (40-52) (Next Year) Technical and Economic Information 1. The plant runs five days each week and currently is running 10 lines with no overtime. Each line requires six people to run. For Questions 1. Prepare an aggregate plan for the coming year, assuming that the sales forecast is perfect. Use the spreadsheet "Bradford Manufacturing." In the spreadsheet, an area has been designated for your aggregate plan solution. Supply the number of packaging lines to run and the number of overtime hours for each quarter. You will need to set up the cost calculations in the spreadsheet. You may want to try using the Excel Solver to find a low-cost solution. Remember that your final solution needs an integer number of lines and an integer number of overtime hours for each quarter. (Solutions that require 8.9134 lines and 1.256 hours of overtime are not feasible.) It is important that your spreadsheet calculations are set up so that any values in the number of lines and overtime hours rows evaluates correctly. Your spreadsheet will be evaluated based on this. 2. Find a solution to the problem that goes beyond just minimizing cost. Prepare a short write-up that describes the process you went through to find your solution and that justifies why you think it is a good solution. AutoSave Off Ch8_Bradford_Manufacturing excel temp... Saved to this PC Search Rohde, Cheyenne RC E F 2,200 385 3rd (27-39) 2,500 4th (40-52) 2,650 408 338 File Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Data Review View Automate Help Ruler Headings Split View Side by Side Default 100 Keep Exit New Options Normal Page Break Page Custom Preview Layout Views Navigation Gridlines Formula Bar Hide [D] Synchronous Scrolling Zoom 100% Zoom to Selection New Arrange Freeze Window All Panes Switch Macros Unhide Reset Window Position Windows Sheet View Workbook Views Show Zoom Window Macros A1 X fx A B C D 4 1,000 case units. 5 1st (1-13) Quarter (Week Numbers) 2nd (14-26) H Notes J K L M N 0 P Q Forecast Demand 2,000 2,200 Each number is a 13 week forecast. Ending Inventory Target 338 This is calculated based on 6 weeks of future forecast demand. Comments Share G 1st (Next Year) 9 Planning Data Numbers Units of measure Notes 10 Initial number of employees 60 employees 11 Emplyees per line 6 Forecast Demand by Quarter (1,000 Case Units) 12 Standard production rate (each line) 450 Cases per hour 13 Employee pay rate $20.00 per hour 3,000 14 Overtime pay rate 15 Standard hours per shift $30.00 per hour 7.5 hours 2,500 2,000 16 Maximum overtime per day 2 hours 1,500 17 Inventory carry cost $1.00 per case (per year) 1,000 18 Stockout cost $2.40 per case 500 19 Employee hiring and training cost $5,000.00 per employee 0 20 Employee layoff cost $3,000.00 per employee 1st (1-13) 2nd (14-26) 3rd (27-39) 4th (40-52) 1st (Next Year) 21 22 Aggregate Plan Quarter (Week Numbers) 23 1st (1-13) 2nd (14-26) 3rd (27-39) 4th (40-52) Notes 24 Lines run 9 9 10 10 Construct solution here. 25 Overtime hours per day 1 1 2 1 26 27 Beginning Inventory 200.0 437.6 475.3 28 Production 2,237.6 2,237.6 2,778.8 754.0 2,486.3 29 Expected Demand 2,000.0 2,200.0 2,500.0 2,650.0 30 Ending Inventory 437.6 475.3 754.0 590.3 31 32 Deviation from Inventory Target 33 Employees 99.2 54 90.6 346.3 251.8 54 60 60 34 35 Cost of Plan Aggregate Plan Simulation Worksheet Actual Costs (+ Ready Accessibility: Investigate Q B 10:49 PM (4) 4/14/2024 100% AutoSave Off Ch8_Bradford_Manufacturing excel temp... Saved to this PC Search Rohde, Cheyenne RC File Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Data Review View Automate Help Comments Share Ruler Headings Split View Side by Side Default 100 Gridlines Keep Exit New Options Normal Page Break Page Custom Preview Layout Views Navigation Formula Bar Zoom 100% Zoom to Selection New Arrange Freeze Window All Panes Hide Unhide [D] Synchronous Scrolling Switch Macros Reset Window Position Windows Sheet View Workbook Views Show Zoom Window Macros A1 fx A B C D E F G H I J K L M N 0 P Q 28 Production 2,237.6 29 Expected Demand 2,000.0 30 Ending Inventory 437.6 2,237.6 2,200.0 475.3 2,778.8 2,486.3 2,500.0 2,650.0 754.0 590.3 31 32 Deviation from Inventory Target 99.2 90.6 346.3 33 Employees 54 54 60 251.8 60 34 35 Cost of Plan 36 Labor Regular Time 37 Labor Overtime 38 Hiring and Training 39 Layoff 40 Inventory Carry Cost 41 Stockout Cost 42 Quarter Budget $0 $0 90 $0 43 44 Total Cost of Plan en en $0 Employees are paid for 8 hrs work per day. 60 employees are employeed currently. Carrying cost per year, divided by 4, multiplied by 1,000. Basic on negative deviation from target. $0 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Ready Aggregate Plan Simulation Worksheet Actual Costs (+) Accessibility: Investigate Q B 10:49 PM (4) 4/14/2024 100%