The Meredith Ribbon Company Produces Paper and Fabric Decorative Ribbon

question 18

Essay

The Meredith Ribbon Company produces paper and fabric decorative ribbon which it sells to paper products companies and craft stores.The demand for ribbon is seasonal.Information about projected demand and production for a particular type of ribbon is given.
An inventory holding cost of $.005 is levied on every yard of ribbon carried over from one quarter to the next.
a.Define the decision variables needed to model this problem.
b.The objective is to minimize total cost,the sum of production and inventory holding cost.Give the objection function.
c.Write the production capacity constraints.
d.Write the constraints that balance inventory,production,and demand for each quarter.Assume there is no beginning inventory in quarter 1.
e.To attempt to balance the production and avoid large changes in the workforce,production in period 1 must be within 5000 yards of production in period 2.Write this constraint.

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Definitions:

Vegetative Propagation

A process of asexual reproduction in plants where new individuals are formed without the production of seeds or spores.

Fragmentation

A method of asexual reproduction in some bacteria, archaea, animals, or plants; a cell or an organism separates into several pieces and each piece develops into a new organism.

Sporogenesis

The process of spore formation, particularly in plants, fungi, and protozoa.

Fission

The division of a single entity into two or more parts and the regeneration of those parts into separate entities resembling the original.