Product Mix

A machine shop consists of five machine centres M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5 and
manufactures four different products P1, P2, P3, and P4. The product mix is planned on a
weekly basis. The shop works on all seven days of a week; a day is broken into three
shifts, a shift consisting of seven working hours. Not all machine centres work during
each shift.

The following table shows for each machine centre, the number of shifts of working each
day and the number of identical machines that it consists of:

Machine centre Shifts per day No. of machines

M1 2 6
M2 2 8
M3 3 4
M4 1 7
M5 3 5

The next table shows for each of the products how much processing time one unit of it
takes at each of the machine centres, and its per unit contribution.

Product Processing time (hrs) per unit Contribution

M1 M2 M3 M4 M5
P1 2 1 0 0 1 6
P2 3 8 10 5 0 10
P3 1 2 1 8 4 3
P4 1 2 0 1 5 8

Three product mix plans A, B, C have been proposed for the forthcoming week as shown
below:

Product Number of units to be produced

Plan A Plan B Plan C
P1 100 50 50
P2 50 100 100
P3 75 50 50
P4 50 75 50

Questions:

1. Evaluate each plan in terms of total machine centre hours required and the total
contribution. Are all plans feasible? Which plan is the best? Extend this to accept
more sets of plans and evaluate them.

2. In case any plan is infeasible, suggest which parameters need to be changed and by
how much to make it feasible.
3. Work out a best feasible plan that maximizes the contribution.