Question: The work required for a contract is predictable and quite repetitive. The hours for the preparation of a standard contract for each category of projects

The work required for a contract is predictable and quite repetitive. The hours for the preparation of a standard contract for each category of projects are given below, by the types of professionals employed by the firm.

TypeHours per contract (shopping center)Hours per contract (clinics)Number of professionalsAvailability per day (in hours)*
paralegal4646
tax lawyer1338
Senior partner1124

* A paralegal can work up to 6 hours a day on contracts, a lawyer up to 8 hours a day, and an associate up to 4 hours a day.

Suppose that next month the firm anticipates a demand for 150 contracts to be processed (75 of each category). Suppose also that there are 20 working days in a month.

a) Estimate the average capacity of the firm (in contracts per day).

Hint: Start by calculating the average number of hours per contract by type of professional, given that there are 50% of contracts in each of the two categories. Next, identify the bottleneck.

b) Demonstrate that the firm will not be able to process 150 contracts next month with its current workforce.

c) If the firm wanted to process 150 contracts next month, how many professionals of each type would be required?

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