THEME PARK EMPLOYEE SCHEDULING

A theme park specifies the requirements for employees in four-hour blocks of time.  The estimated requirements for employees in the next month are given in Table 1.

The current plan is to staff the park with full time employees that work eight hours in a row and part time employees that work four hours in a row.  Thus full time employees begin their shifts at the first hour of one of the 6 four-hour periods shown in Table 1 and work until the conclusion of the next four-hour period.  For example, a full time employee starting at 8 pm on one day will cover the last four-hour period of that day and the first four-hour period of the next day.  A part time employee starts at the beginning of one of the 6 four-hour periods and works until that period is over.  Full time employees are paid $7.50 per hour and part time employees are paid $9.00 per hour.

Create a Solver-based spreadsheet model to determine the number of full time and part time employees thatstart in each of the 6 four-hour periods and does at the minimum total daily cost and solve the model.

Comments and Hints:

You must define the number of full time and part time employees starting each period as the changing cells (12 changing cells total) and the number available each period as formula cells.  The general idea is that the number available in any particular period is the number starting that period (full time plus part time) plus the number of full time starting the previous period.  For example, the number available from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m.is the number starting (both full and part time)  that period plus the number of full time starting in the period from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. (from the previous day).