The owner of the store can hire either full time employees or part time employees. Full-time employees work for 8 consecutive hours and hence can be hired for the following shifts: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm (Shift 1), Noon to 8:00 pm (Shift 2), 4:00 pm to Midnight (Shift 3). Each full-time employee is paid $14 per hour. Part-time employees can be hired to cover any of the four time periods listed in the table above. Each part-time employee is paid $12 per hour. In addition to the minimum number of employees (full-time or part-time) for each of the four time periods given above, the owner also wants to make sure that there are at least two full-time employees for every part-time employee on duty.
The owner wants to determine how many full time and part-time employees to hire for each shift/time period that will minimize the overall cost.
Time of the day
|
Minimum number of employees
|
8 to noon
|
6
|
Noon to 4pm
|
8
|
4pm to 8pm
|
12
|
8pm to midnight
|
6
|