(5 points)

You are an operations manager at a small company that manufacturers home sound systems, and you are trying to develop your aggregate plan for the next four quarters. Your workers are semi-skilled, and it costs approximately $400 to hire and on- board new employees. Laying off an employee costs $125. When no overtime is used, your total quarterly output is 2,000 units per quarter produced by your current workforce of 20 employees. By using overtime, output increases by a maximum of 20% per quarter. The cost to produce a single unit on regular time (including materials) is $310. The cost to produce a single unit using overtime (including materials) is $380. Undertime has no cost, but you want to minimize the use of undertime. You have no units in inventory, backorders are not allowed. Demand for the upcoming year is given below: Quarter 1 2 3 4 Demand 1000 4200 2700 1600 Using the spreadsheet provided, prepare an aggregate plan for the next four quarters using a chase strategy. As the manager of the previously mentioned home sound system manufacturer, you now need to choose whether you want to use a level strategy, or a chase strategy for your aggregate plan. What information do you need in order to make this decision? What strategy do you think is most appropriate in this setting and why