Question

Nemecek Brothers make a single product on two separate production lines, A and B. Its labor force is equivalent to 1000 hours per week, and it has $3000 outlay weekly on operating costs. It takes 1 hour and 4 hours to produce a single item on lines A and B, respectively. The cost of producing a single item is $5 on line A and $4 on line B. (a) Write the inequality that expresses the labor information. (b) Write the inequality that expresses the cost information.

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) The inequality for the number of items, x, produced by the labor, is given as follows;

250 ≤ x ≤ 600

(b) The inequality for the cost, C is $1,000 ≤ C ≤ $3,000

Step-by-step explanation:

The total time available for production = 1000 hours per week

The time it takes to produce an item on line A = 1 hour

The time it takes to produce an item on line B = 4 hour

Therefore, with both lines working simultaneously, the time it takes to produce 5 items = 4 hours

The number of items produced per the weekly labor = 1000/4 × 5 = 1,250 items

The minimum number of items that can be produced is when only line B is working which produces 1 item per 4 hours, with the weekly number of items = 1000/4 × 1 = 250 items

Therefore, the number of items, x, produced per week with the available labor is given as follows;

250 ≤ x ≤ 1250

Which is revised to 250 ≤ x ≤ 600 as shown in the following answer

(b) The cost of producing a single item on line A = $5

The cost of producing a single item on line B = $4

The total available amount for operating cost = $3,000

Therefore, given that we can have either one item each from lines A and B with a total possible item

When the minimum number of possible items is produced by line B, we have;

Cost = 250 × 4 = $1,000

When the maximum number of items possible, 1,250, is produced, whereby we have 250 items produced from line B and 1,000 items produced from line A, the total cost becomes;

Total cost = 250 × 4 + 1000 × 5 = 6,000

Whereby available weekly outlay = $3000, the maximum that can be produced from line A alone is therefore;

$3,000/$5 = 600 items = The maximum number of items that can be produced

The inequality for the cost, C, becomes;

$1,000 ≤ C ≤ $3,000

The time to produce the maximum 600 items on line A alone is given as follows;

1 hour/item × 600 items = 600 hours

The inequality for the number of items, x, produced by the labor, is therefore, given as follows;

250 ≤ x ≤ 600