MBI Corporation, which manufactures special purpose computers, needs to make a decision: How many computers should it produce next month at the Boston plant? MBI is considering two types of computers: the CC-7, which requires 300 days of labor and $10, 000 in materials and the CC-8, which requires 500 days of labor and $15,000 in materials. The profit contribution of each CC-7 is $8,000, whereas that of each CC-8 is $12,000. The plant has a capacity of 200,000 working days per month, and the material budget is $8 million per month. Marketing requires that at least 100 units of the CC-7 and at least 200 units of the CC-8 be produced each month. The problem is to maximize the company's profits by determining how many units of the CC-7 and how many units of the CC-8 should be produced each month. Note that in a real-world environment, it could possibly take months to obtain the data in the problem statement, and while gathering the data, the decision maker would no doubt uncover facts about how to structure the model to be solved. Web-based tools for gathering data can help.

Tasks:

1. Identify the decision variables for the MBI Corporation problem

2. Identify the objective for the above problem, and write a formula for it

3. Identify the constraints for the above problem and write the formula for each

4. Develop a model for the MBI problem in Excel and solve it

5. Submit your work for marking (the Excel worksheet and Answer Report)