Help on Unit 9

DonnaD

I am currently stuck whilst looking at one of the past papers for unit 9. It is the June 06 paper, Task 1.2 (b), I have looked at the answers and I can understand that there is a shortfall of 320 hours, but I am unsure of the calculations used, I don't understand why the extra units needed (1400 and 600) are both divided by 2000, a explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

garry_coombs

The 2000 is the 1400 + 600, this is to pro rata the shortfall in labour hours.

You have a shortfall of 320 hours which needs to be shared equally between the two products so this is done by multiplying it by the additional production required and then divided by the total addtional production, this is so that the answers (224 and 96) come to exactly 320.

I hope that made sense, to put it simply its to pro rata it

DonnaD

Of course, it makes perfect sense now, thanks very much.

SandyHood

I'm interested to read the method you both used to answer this question.

I took a different approach.
I established that labour was the constraint

Then I identified that the total labour hours available were 4,335 hours
But instead of looking at the hours I wanted, I then deducted the hours already commited to the existing production of 9,555 Sigmas and 11,760 Thetas
This works out as 4,305 hours

This means 30 hours are available to try to produce the extra 1,400 Sigmas and the 600 Thetas.

I have discussed this question with the chief assessor at the time and he agreed that the published answer had among other queries, a particularly critical error at this point.
He actually reduced the Sigma production from 9,555 to 9,387.

Task 1.2 does not ask you to reduce production of either product so you should assume that the remaining 30 hours are used to increase production of one or both products.
This then means there is a spectrum of correct answers all of which hinge on the 30 hours avaialable to make them.

At one end of the scale all 30 hours could be used to produce Sigmas, if so 210 extra would be made.
At the other end of the scale all 30 hours could be used to produce Thetas, if so 120 extra would be made.
Along the scale there are many other combinations eg 7 extra Sigmas and 116 extra Thetas.

So the answer to 1.2 (b) would be the 9,555 Sigmas plus however many extra you chose to produce from the 30 hours available, and 11,760 Thetas plus those extra Thetas you choose to produce from the 30 hours.