Auburn Foods produces frozen meals aimed at the college student market. The production takes place in four stages: Preparation, in which the food is cleaned and cut; Cooking; Freezing; and Packaging. The company has a bottleneck in the Preparation stage, as shown below. Each ‘‘unit'' refers to a container of 144 frozen meals.

Each unit sells for $200 and has a variable cost of $120.
Option a. Auburn can increase Preparation output by renting additional equipment that would cost $200 per hour and increase the hourly capacity in Preparation by 5 units.
Option b. Auburn can pay its suppliers to perform some of the food preparation. This option would cost Auburn $2 more per unit and would enable the company to increase its hourly output in Preparation by 10 units.
Auburn can take either or both options as presented. If both options are taken, the cost increase in Option b would apply to 310 units. What do yourecommend?

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Hourly Capacity Actual Hourly Production Preparation 300 Units 300 Units Cooking 312 Units 300 Units Freezing 320 Units 300 Units Packaging 340 Units 300 Units