Staffing

Q1. A post office requires different numbers of full-time employees on different days of the week. The
number of full-time employees required on each day is given in following Table. Union rules state that
each full-time employee must work five consecutive days and then receive two days off. For example, an
employee who works Monday to Friday must be off on Saturday and Sunday. The post office wants to
meet its daily requirements using only fulltime employees. Formulate an LP that the post office can use to
minimize the number of full-time employees who must be hired.

Q2. In the post office example, suppose that each full-time employee works 8 hours per day. Thus,
Monday’s requirement of 17 workers may be viewed as a requirement of 8(17) = 136 hours. The post
office may meet its daily labor requirements by using both full-time and part-time employees. During
each week, a full-time employee works
8 hours a day for five consecutive days, and a part-time employee works 4 hours a day for five
consecutive days. A full-time employee costs the post office $15 per hour, whereas a part-time employee
(with reduced fringe benefits) costs the post office only $10 per hour. Union requirements limit part-time
labor to 25% of weekly labor requirements.
Formulate an LP to minimize the post office’s weekly labor costs.

Q3. Larry Edison is the director of the Computer Center for Buckly College. He now needs to schedule the staffing
of the center. It is open from 8 A.M. until midnight. Larry has monitored the usage of the center at various times of
the day, and determined that the following numbers of computer consultants are required:
Time of Day Minimum Number of Consultants
Required to Be on Duty
8 A.M.–noon 4
Noon–4 P.M. 8
4 P.M.–8 P.M. 10
8 P.M.–midnight 6
Two types of computer consultants can be hired: full-time and part-time. The full-time consultants work for 8
consecutive hours in any of the following shifts: morning (8 A.M.–4 P.M.), afternoon (noon–8 P.M.), and evening
(4 P.M.–midnight). Full-time consultants are paid $14 per hour. Part-time consultants can be hired to work any of
the four shifts listed in the above table. Part-time consultants are paid $12 per hour.
An additional requirement is that during every time period, there must be at least 2 full-time consultants on duty for
every part-time consultant on duty. Larry would like to determine how many full-time and how many part-time
workers should work each shift to meet the above requirements at the minimum possible cost.
Formulate a linear programming model for this problem.
Q4. Each day, workers at the Gotham City Police Department work two 6-hour shifts chosen from 12 A.M. to 6
A.M., 6 A.M. to 12 P.M., 12 P.M. to 6 P.M., and 6 P.M. to 12 A.M. The following number of workers are needed
during each shift: 12 A.M. to 6 A.M.—15 workers; 6 A.M. to 12 P.M.—5 workers; 12 P.M. to 6 P.M.—12 workers;
6 P.M. to 12 A.M.—6 workers. Workers whose two shifts are consecutive are paid $12 per hour; workers whose
shifts are not consecutive are paid $18 per hour. Formulate an LP that can be used to minimize the cost of meeting
the daily workforce demands of the Gotham City Police Department.
Multi-period Production scheduling:

Q5. A company faces the following demands during the next three periods: period 1, 20 units;
period 2, 10 units; period 3, 15 units. The unit production cost during each period is as follows:
period 1—$13; period 2—$14; period 3—$15. A holding cost of $2 per unit is assessed against
each period’s ending inventory. At the beginning of period 1, the company has 5 units on hand.
The company wants to hold 8 units at the end of period 3. Formulate an LP to minimize the
cost of meeting the demand for the next three periods.

Q6. PM Computer Services produces personal computers from component parts it buys on the open
market. The company can produce a maximum of 300 personal computers per month. PM wants to
determine its production schedule for the first 6 months of the new year. The cost to produce a personal
computer in January will be $1,200. However, PM knows the cost of component parts will decline each
month so that the overall cost to produce a PC will be 5% less each month from the base cost. The cost
of holding a computer in inventory is $15 per unit per month. Following is the demand for the
company's computers each month:
Month Demand Month Demand

January 180 April 210

February 260 May 400

March 340 June 320

Determine a production schedule for PM that will minimize total cost.

Q7. Haifa Instruments, an Israeli producer of portable kidney dialysis units and other medical products,
develops an 8-month aggregate plan. Demand and capacity (in units) are forecast as shown in the table
below.

The cost of producing each dialysis unit is $1,000 on regular time, $1,300 on overtime, and $1,500 on a
subcontract. Inventory carrying cost is $100 per unit per month. There is no beginning or ending
inventory in stock.
(a) Set up a production plan, using the transportation model, that minimizes cost. What is this plan’s cost?
(b) Through better planning, regular time production can be set at exactly the same value, 275 per month.
Does this alter the solution?
(c) If overtime costs rise from $1,300 to $1,400, does this change your answer to part (a)? What if they
fall to $1,200?