Discussion Questions
1. Approximately how far ahead would one need to plan
for the following types of facilities?
a. Restaurant
b. Hospital
c. Oil refinery
d. Toy factory
e. Electric power plant
f. Public school
g. Private school
2. What problems are created by simultaneously consider–
ing the capacity questions of how much, how large,
where, when, and what type?
3. A school district has forecast student enrollment for
several years into the future and predicts excess capac–
ity for 2000 students. The school board has said that the
only alternative is to close a school. Evaluate.
4. Why are facilities decisions often made by top manage–
ment? What is the role in these decisions of operations,
marketing, finance, accounting, engineering, and human
resources?
5. In what ways does corporate strategy affect capacity
decisions?
6. S&OP or aggregate planning sometimes is confused
with scheduling. What is the difference?
7. The XYZ Company manufactures a seasonal product.
At the present time, the company uses a level labor
force as a matter of company policy. The company is
afraid that if it lays off workers, it will not be able to
rehire them or find qualified replacements. Does this
company have an aggregate planning problem? Discuss.
8. It has been said that aggregate planning is related to
personnel planning, budgeting, and market planning.
Describe the nature of the relationship among these
types of planning.
9. Every firm has multiple objectives such as good labor
relations, low operating costs, high inventory turnover,
and good customer service. What are the pros and cons
of treating these objectives separately in an aggregate
planning problem versus combining them all into a sin–
gle measure of cost?
10. What factors are important in choosing the length of the
planning horizon for aggregate planning?
11. A barbershop has been using a level workforce of bar–
bers five days per week, Tuesday through Saturday. The
barbers have considerable idle time on Tuesday through
Friday, with certain peak periods during the lunch hours
and after 4 p.m. each day. On Friday afternoon and all
day Saturday, all the barbers are very busy, with cus–
tomers waiting a substantial amount of time and some
customers being turned away. What options should this
barbershop consider for aggregate planning? How
would you analyze these options? What data should be
collected, and how should the options be compared?
