6. The VP of marketing at Ski & Sea, is not happy with having back orders in any sales and operations plan for the future. The marketing manager asks the operations manager to develop a plan that requires no back orders at any time during the year. The VP of manufacturing says he will insist that any such plan specify the same output each quarter and use full-time employees on regular time only. The VP of finance states that quarter 4 ending inventory need not be zero, but it should be as low as possible.

a. Use the original sales plan, beginning inventory, and other data from Problem 4. Develop a plan that will meet the requirement of all three VPs. (Hint: Examine the graphs you prepared for Problem 4b. What slope is required for the output line to eliminate backlogs?)

b. What will the ending inventory for quarter 4 be?