Case: Fabrics and Fall Fashions

From the 10th floor of her office building, Katherine Rally watches the swarms of New Yorkers fight their way through the streets infested with yellow cabs and the sidewalks littered with hot dog stands. On this sweltering uly day, she !ays !articular attention to the fashions worn by "arious women and wonders what they will choose to wear in the fall. #er thoughts are not sim!ly random musings$ they are critical to her work since she owns and manages %rend &ines, an elite clothing com!any. %oday is an es!ecially im!ortant day because she must meet with %ed &awson, the !roduction manager, to decide u!on ne't month(s !roduction !lan for the fall line. )!ecifically, she must determine the *uantity of each clothing item she should !roduce gi"en the !lant(s !roduction ca!acity, limited resources, and the demand forecasts. +ccurate !lanning for ne't month(s !roduction is critical to fall sales since the items !roduced ne't month will a!!ear in stores during )e!tember and women generally buy the ma,ority of the fall fashions when they first a!!ear in )e!tember. )he turns back to her s!rawling glass desk and looks at the numerous !a!ers co"ering it. #er eyes roam across the clothing !atterns designed almost si' months ago, the lists of material re*uirements for each !attern, and the lists of demand forecasts for each !attern determined by customer sur"ey at fashion shows. )he remembers the hectic and sometimes nightmarish days of designing the fall line and !resenting it at fashion shows in New York, -ilan, and .aris. /ltimately, she !aid her team of si' designers a total of 0120,000 for their work on her fall line. 3ith the cost of hiring runway models, hair stylists, and make4u! artists$ sewing and fitting clothes$ building the set$ choreogra!hing and rehearsing the show$ and renting the conference hall, each of the three fashion shows cost her an additional 5,600,000. )he studies the clothing !atterns and material re*uirements. #er fall line consists of both !rofessional and casual fashions. )he determined the !rice for each clothing item by taking into account the *uality and cost of material, the cost of labour and machining, the demand for the item, and the !restige of the %rend &ines brand name. %he fall !rofessional fashions include7 Clothing item Material Requirement %ailored 3ool )lacks 8yards of wool 5 yards of acetate for lining 9ashmere )weater 1.: yards of cashmere )ilk <louse 1.: yards of silk )ilk 9amisole 0.: yard of silk %ailored )kirt 5 yards of rayon 1.: yards of acetate for lining 3ool <la=er 5.: yards of wool 1.: yards of acetate for lining %he fall casual fashions include7 Clothing item >el"et .ants 9otton sweater 9otton miniskirt >el"et shirt <utton4down <louse Material Requirements 8 yards of "el"et 5 yards of acetate for lining 1.: yards of cotton 0.: yards of cotton 1.: yards of "el"et 1.: yards of rayon Price 08:0 180 6: 500 150 Labor & machine cost 016: 20 ;0 120 ?0 Price 0800 ;:0 110 150 560 850 Labor & Machine cost 0120 1:0 100 20 150 1;0

)he knows that for the ne't month, she has ordered ;:,000 yards of wool, 51,000 yards of acetate, ?,000 yards of cashmere, 11,000 yards of silk, 80,000 yards of rayon, 50,000 yards of "el"et, and 80,000 yards of cotton for !roduction. %he !rices of the materials are listed below. Material Price per Yard 3ool 0?.00 +cetate 1.:0 9ashmere 20.00 )ilk 18.00 Rayon 5.5: >el"et 15.00 9otton 5.:0 +ny material that is not used in !roduction can be sent back to the te'tile wholesaler for a full refund, although scra! material cannot be sent back to the wholesaler. )he knows that the !roduction of both the silk blouse and cotton sweater lea"es lefto"er scra!s of material. )!ecifically, for the !roduction of one silk blouse or one cotton sweater, 5 yards of silk and cotton, res!ecti"ely, are needed. From these 5 yards, 1.: yards are used for silk blouse or the cotton sweater and 0.: yard is left as scra! material. )he does not want to waste the material, so she !lans to use the rectangular scra! of silk or cotton to !roduce a silk camisole or cotton miniskirt, res!ecti"ely. %herefore, whene"er a silk blouse is !roduced, a silk camisole is also !roduced. &ikewise, whene"er a cotton sweater is !roduced, a cotton miniskirt is also !roduced. Note that it is !ossible to !roduce a silk camisole without !roducing a silk blouse and a cotton miniskirt without !roducing a cotton sweater. %he demand forecasts indicate that some items ha"e limited demand. )!ecifically, because the "el"et !ants and "el"et shirts are fashion fads, %rend&ines has forecasted that it can sell only :,:00 !airs of "el"et !ants and 2,000 "el"et shirts. %rend&ines does not want to !roduce more than forecasted demand because once the !ants and shirts go out of style, the com!any cannot sell them. %rend&ines can !roduce less than the forecasted demand, howe"er, since the com!any is not re*uired to meet the demand. %he cashmere sweater also has limited demand because it is *uite e'!ensi"e, and %rend&ines knows it can sell at most ;,000 cashmere sweaters. %he silk blouses and camisoles ha"e limited demand because many women think silk is too hard to care for, and %rend&ines !ro,ects that it can sell at most 15,000 silk blouses and 1:,000 silk camisoles. %he demand forecasts also indicate that the wool slacks, tailored skirts, and wool bla=ers ha"e a great demand because they are basic items needed in e"ery !rofessional wardrobe. )!ecifically, the demand is 6,000 !airs of wool slacks and :,000 wool bla=ers. Katherine wants to meet at least 20@ of the demand for these two items to maintain her loyal customer base and not to lose business in the future. +lthough the demand for tailored skirts could not be estimated, Katherine feels she should make at least 5,100 of them. 1. Formulate and sol"e a linear !rogramming !roblem to ma'imi=e !rofit gi"en the !roduction, resource, and demand constraints. <efore she makes her final decision, Katherine !lans to e'!lore the following *uestion inde!endently, e'ce!t where otherwise indicated. 5. %he te'tile wholesaler informs Katherine that the "el"et cannot be sent back because the demand forecasts show that the demand for "el"et will decrease in the future. Katherine can therefore got no refund for the "el"et. #ow does this fact change the !roduction !lanA