A company that makes the rocket widget has one machine capable of producing this unique item. The machine requires an attendant, who works 40 hours a week for $12 per hour and has made himself available for a maximum of 8 hours of overtime. It costs $20 per hour to run the machine and it is capable of producing 10,000 rocket widgets per hour. The widgets sell for $10 per hundred and cost $1 per hundred in materials. If the production manager wishes to develop a sales and operations plans using an optimization model, which of the following statements is valid?
A)A constraint should limit overtime to less than 8 hours per week.
B)The objective function should maximize the amount of rocket widgets produced.
C)The objective function must be to minimize the overtime.
D)A constraint should limit the cost to run the machine to less than or equal to $20 per hour.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

BA constraint limiting overtime to less than 8 hours per week is valid because the attendant has made himself available for a maximum of 8 hours of overtime, thus it cannot exceed this limit. The objective function should maximize the amount of rocket widgets produced because the goal of a production manager is typically to maximize output or profit, and in this context, producing more widgets would likely contribute to achieving that goal.

A Company That Makes the Rocket Widget Has One Machine