The Silver Star Bicycle Company will be manufacturing men€™s and women€™s models of its Easy-Pedal 10-speed bicycle during the next two months, and the company would like a production schedule indicating how many bicycles of each model should be produced in each month. Current demand forecasts call for 150 men€™s and 125 women€™s models to be shipped during the first month and 200 men€™s and 150 women€™s models to be shipped during the second month. Additional data are shown in Exhibit 13.18. Last month Silver Star used a total of 4,000 hours of labor. Its labor relations policy will not allow the combined total hours of labor (manufacturing plus assembly) to increase or decrease by more than 500 hours from month to month. In addition, the company charges monthly inventory at the rate of 2 percent of the production cost based on the inventory levels at the end of the month. Silver Star would like to have at least 25 units of each model in inventory at the end of the two months.
Exhibit 13.18€‚Silver Star Bicycle Data

a. Establish a production schedule that minimizes production and inventory costs and satisfies the labor-smoothing, demand, and inventory requirements. What inventories will be maintained, and what are the monthly labor requirements?
b. If the company changed the constraints so that monthly labor increases and decreases could not exceed 250 hours, what would happen to the production schedule? How much would the cost increase? What would you recommend?

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Current Labor Required for Labor Required for Inventory 20 Manufacturing (hours) Assembly (hours) ModelProduction Costs Men's Women s S40 10 30 S30