A. The production of a good or service requires careful balance of orders with the capacity to produce that item. There may often be more labor hours available than orders needed to fill or orders that are backed up because they exceed capacity. Whatever the case there are many reasons for an imbalance in capacity and demand -- orders may exceed capacity or capacity may exceed orders

What options do you have as a manager when faced with these dilemmas. What are solutions to these challenges. Pick one of these challenges and offer one solution. Our goal by the end of this forum is to identify as many solutions to the capacity - demand problem as possible.

B. As you drive to work, school or other places, notice a manufacturing facility or a place of business that provides a service. Identify one of these businesses and try to figure out why the business chose that particular location? Consider the following criteria and discuss how they might apply to that business and the location site.

-Inexpensive labor
-Abundance of qualified labor
-Proximity to customers
-Proximity to suppliers
-Taxes and government/community support
-Location cost
-Access to transportation