1. Construct an electronic spreadsheet to perform aggregate planning by the trial-anderror method. Use the Imperial Sail Company example in the chapter. Enter the beginning inventory, desired ending inventory, regular-time production per employeemonth, beginning number of employees, cost to hire, cost to lay off, regulartime wage rate, and overtime wage rate in blocks at the top of the template, and refer to these locations. This will allow you to change the problem easily if you want to analyze other problems with this template.

You may want additional columns, but you will find these helpful: demand per period, employees needed for chase strategy, employees used (the variable you will change), cumulative demand, cumulative regular-time production, overtime required

(if cumulative demand is greater than cumulative production), inventory cost (if cumulative production exceeds cumulative demand), hiring cost (when employees are added), and layoff cost. Accumulate the appropriate columns, and develop the cost of payroll + overtime + hiring and layoff + inventory. Use $8.50 per hour as the regulartime wage rate and $12.75 for overtime.

Use the spreadsheet to compare at least three employment patterns. Compare the total cost of your best plan with the costs and best plans that have been developed by others.