SEQUOIA AIRLINES

CASE ANALYSIS
Moahmmed Mobin Jabbar (m120038)
10/9/2013

REVIEWERS:
Mohammed Umair Awan
Syed Sohaib-ul-Hassan

Table of Contents
Background ............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Problem Statement ................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Equations ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Objective Function .............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Constraints: ......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
CASE ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Question 1).......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Question 2).......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Question 3).......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Recommendation.................................................................................................................................................................... 6
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................................................ 8
FIG 1: LP MODEL ................................................................................................................................................................. 8
FIG 2: Hours available ......................................................................................................................................................... 8

CASE: Sequoia Airlines

Background
Sequoia Airlines is a well-established regional airline serving California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Sequoia
competes against much larger carriers in this regional market, and its management feels that the price,
frequency of flight service, ability to meet schedules, baggage handling, and image projected by its flight atattendants are the most important marketing factors that airline passengers consider when deciding to use a
particular carrier.

Problem Statement
As Sequoia competes against much larger carriers, it faces severe worker shortages as skilled and experienced
flight attendants are hired away by other airlines. This results in overtime work for the existing flight
attendants causing excessive personal costs and some morale problem among the attendants. The shortage
becomes particularly bad during the seasonal peak-demand periods as rival airlines poach away significant
proportion of Sequoia Airlines staff by offering slightly higher direct salaries, attractive indirect benefit
packages, and guarantees of a minimum number of peak hours in off-peak demand periods.
To further explain the inter-staff movements, the following diagram can be helpful:

Equations
The following are the equations formulated to be used in the Liner Programming model for the solution of the
case.

Objective Function
=750+1050+1400+1500+1500

Let t -2= May, t -1= June, t= July, t1= August, t2= September, t3= October, t4= November, t5= December

Let Tt= Number of Trainees Hired at the beginning of each period

Let Jt= Number of Junior Flight Attendants available at the beginning of each period

When t=1, J1= T-1 * (.8)

When t=2, J2= T1 * (.8)
When t=3, J3= T2 * (.8)
When t=4, J4= T3 * (.8)
When t=5, J5= T4 * (.8)
When t=6, J6= T5 * (.8)

Let Ft= Number of Experienced Flight Attendants available at the beginning of each period

When t=1, F1= J1*(.95) + F-1 * (.92)

When t=2, F2= J2*(.95) + F1 * (.92)
When t=3, F3= J3*(.95) + F2 * (.92)
When t=4, F4= J4*(.95) + F3 * (.92)
When t=5, F5= J5*(.95) + F4 * (.92)
When t=6, F6= J6*(.95) + F5 * (.92)

Let lt= Number of Instructors available at the beginning of each period

When t=1, l1= l -1*(.95) + F-1 * (.005)

When t=2, l2= l1*(.95) + F1 * (.005)
When t=3, l3= l2*(.95) + F2 * (.005)
When t=4, l4= l3*(.95) + F3 * (.005)
When t=5, l5= l4*(.95) + F4 * (.005)
When t=6, l6= l5*(.95) + F5 * (.005)

Let St= Number of Surplus Instructors available as Flight Attendants at the beginning of each period

When t=1, St=l1 (J1/5)

When t=2, St=l2 (J2/5)
When t=3, St=l3 (J3/5)
When t=4, St=l4 (J4/5)
When t=5, St=l5 (J5/5)
When t=6, St=l6 (J6/5)

Constraints:

Proportion of Junior Attendant hours should not exceed 25% of any months total (Junior +
Experienced)

When t = 1, (J1*140)/((J1*140)+(I1*125)) 25%

When t = 2, (J2*140)/((J2*140)+(I2*125)) 25%
When t = 3, (J2*140)/((J3*140)+(I3*125)) 25%
When t = 4, (J3*140)/((J4*140)+(I4*125)) 25%
When t = 5, (J4*140)/((J5*140)+(I5*125)) 25%
When t = 6, (J5*140)/((J6*140)+(I6*125)) 25%

Hours available should not exceed Attendant Hours Needed.

When t=1, (J1*140)+ (I1*125)+(S1*125) 14000

When t=2, (J2*140)+ (I2*125)+(S2*125) 16000
When t=3, (J3*140)+ (I3*125)+(S3*125) 13000
When t=4, (J4*140)+ (I4*125)+(S4*125) 12000
When t=5, (J5*140)+ (I5*125)+(S5*125) 18000
When t=6, (J6*140)+ (I6*125)+(S6*125) 20000

140+125+125 (Total Available Hours)

,,,, 0

CASE ANALYSIS
Question 1)
For the forecast period (i.e., July-December), determine the number of new trainees who must be hired at the
beginning of each month so that total personnel costs for the flight-attendant staff and training program are
minimized. Formulate the problem as an LP model and solve.
Solution:
As prepared on the excel file, based on the linear programing model, the number of trainees who must be
hired at the beginning of each month so that total personnel costs for the flight-attendant staff and training
program are minimized are shown in the table below:

Employees Hired
May

10

June

10

July

August

September

22

October

35

November

27

December

At these amount of hiring, the minimized total personnel costs for the flight attendant staff and training
program is $1,176,554.

Question 2)
How would you deal with the non-integer results?
Solution:
The non-integer problem was dealt with by using a specific constraint for the issue. In the Solver, all the cells
placed in the By Changing Variable Cell were separately given a constraint shown below:

=
(Where t is the no. of trainees hired each month (July-Dec)
Also, to further address the other cell values of the number of people to be used, MS Excels ROUNDUP (value,
digits) function was used. This was done so because you cannot hire 25.7 persons but rather practically 26
persons will be hired to meet the requirements.

Question 3)
Discuss how you would use the LP model to make your hiring decision for the next 6 months.
Solution:
As shown in the excel files and the inter-staff movement diagram, any new appointments made in the
experienced flight category has at least a 2-month lead time due to the training and probation period
involved. LP model, with the help of forecasting, can solve the major issues that Sequoia Airlines is facing by
calculating the optimum number of hiring to be made. As the demand seems to fluctuate quite regularly, LP
model incorporates all the people expected to leave during the training and provides the lowest possible cost
required to effectively meet the changing demand. As discussed in Q1, should hire trainees during the months
September-November, in order to effectively manage the operation schedule from July-December and
maintain the competitive edge against much larger carriers.

Recommendation
Sequoia Airlines, serving in a competitive market against much larger carriers, needs to create a competitive
edge in order to survive. With pricing and frequency of flight services tough avenues to fight against
competition, especially when they are much larger, Sequoia Airlines needs to invest on its human capital and
work towards better image projection in order to be competitive. The emphasis has to be placed on training

and creating an atmosphere in the organization that fosters motivation and job satisfaction among the
employees. This will not only decrease personnel costs by reducing the turnover rate, but help as a marketing
tool for better brand building as well.
Note:
Please refer to the excel soft copy attached in the email.

APPENDIX
FIG 1: LP MODEL

FIG 2: Hours available