QUESTION 5 (20 marks)

Study the case below and answer all questions that follow. You are an operations analyst at MPQ Limited, a manufacturer of a broad range of electric motorcycles. One of your main responsibilities is the development of an aggregate plan for the company.

a. Specify the basic capacity or demand options that you would rely on to produce an effective aggregate plan for MPQ Limited. (8 marks)

b. You have been tasked with the development of an aggregate plan for the year ended 31 December 2022. Accordingly, you have developed monthly forecasts for a range of motorcycles as presented in Table 5.1, below

Table 5.1: The demand forecast developed for the year ended 31 December 2022.

MONTH PRODUCTION DAYS DEMAND FORECAST

Jan-2022 16 150

Feb-2022 16 150

Mar-2022 23 250

Apr-2022 21 250

May-2022 22 400

Jun-2022 22 500

Jul-2022 21 600

Aug-2022 20 750

Sep-2022 20 450

Oct-2022 20 250

Nov-2022 16 150

Dec-2022 16 150

c. Compute and tabulate the daily demand for each month in the table below (round off to the nearest whole number).

MONTH PRODUCTION DAYS DEMAND FORECAST DEMAND PER DAY

Jan-2022 16 150 ?

Feb-2022 16 150 ?

Mar-2022 23 250 ?

Apr-2022 21 250 ?

May-2022 22 400 ?

Jun-2022 22 500 ?

Jul-2022 21 600 ?

Aug-2022 20 750 ?

Sep-2022 20 450 ?

Oct-2022 20 250 ?

Nov-2022 16 150 ?

Dec-2022 16 150 ?

Total ? ?

d. Assuming that MPQ Limited had adopted a level strategy for the year ended 31 December 2022, compute the average daily demand for the year (round off to the nearest whole number). (3 marks)

e. Prepare a graph showing the monthly forecasts and average daily forecast (in units per day) for MPQ Limited. (3 marks)