Cairo University – Faculty of Engineering – Mechanical Design & Production Dept.
Production Planning and Control (MDP4340) – Spring 2026
Tutorial #3: Aggregate planning
Problems to be solved by students in class: 2
Problems to be solved by the TA in class: 1, and 4(a)
Problems to be solved by students and submitted next week: 3 and 4(b)
1) A toy manufacturing company produces six types of toys. All components and parts are
manufactured elsewhere, while the final assembly is conducted in house. The assembly times
needed per unit for each type of toys are listed in the following table.
Toy Assembly time
(min.)
KoKi 3
Habibi 8
Winni 6
Kitti 4
Barbi 8
Chevi 10
The forecasted demand requirements over the next four quarters are given in the following table.
Toy Quarter
1 2 3 4
KoKi 400 200 300 500
Habibi 80 120 130 150
Winni 900 800 700 800
Kitti 50 60 80 90
Barbi 1200 1300 1300 1500
Chevi 90 120 110 100
Based on the assembly time data, evaluate the aggregate demand for the four quarters. What is
the assembly time needed for an aggregate unit?
2) Suppose in problem 1, the company manager decided to use the unit selling price in determining
the aggregate units. That is, the aggregate product will be measured in terms of the equivalent
monetary value evaluated using the unit selling price of each product. The following table lists
the selling price per unit for each product.
Toy Selling price (LE/unit)
KoKi 10
Habibi 40
Winni 20
Kitti 20
Barbi 60
Chevi 80
Evaluate the aggregate demand and the assembly time needed for an aggregate unit.
3) A steel manufacturing company produces three types of steel sheet metal, labeled S1, S2 and
S3, with different thicknesses and widths. It also produces two types of steel wire rods,
labeled R1 and R2, with different diameters for industrial and construction projects. Both
sheet metal and wire rods are produced in the form of coils. The production time and coil
weight for each product are listed in the following table.
Product type Coil weight (ton) Production time (hrs)
S1 5 2.6
S2 8 2.3
S3 12 1.8
R1 1.5 1.5
R2 2 1.2
The forecasted demand (in number of coils) for the next six months for each product type is
listed below.
Product Month
1 2 3 4 5 6
S1 1000 800 800 700 850 900
S2 1200 1000 900 1000 1100 1200
S3 1300 900 800 800 900 1000
R1 2400 2500 2300 2200 2300 2400
R2 1500 1600 1700 2000 1900 1800
Based on the products’ weights, evaluate the aggregate demand and the assembly time needed
for an aggregate unit.
4) Given below the forecasted demand for 12 months. Two different sets of forecasted demand
of two different aggregate units are provided.
Forecasted demand
Month Set A Set B
1 50 50
2 60 60
3 55 70
4 55 65
5 50 55
6 45 80
7 40 250
8 70 240
9 95 110
10 260 100
11 240 80
12 200 60
The following are other necessary information:
Initial inventory 20 units
Initial workforce 20 people
Regular-time production rate 3 unit/worker/month
Cost of regular-time production LE 500/unit
Cost to carry inventory LE 25/unit/month
Cost of stockout LE 100/unit/month
Cost of hiring new people LE 900/person
Cost of laying off people LE 800/person
a) For data set A only, use the tabular/graphical approach to find a suitable production plan by
trying both the chase and uniform strategies. Then develop a suitable mixed strategy that
would result in lower total cost compared to the other two strategies.
b) For data set B only, use the tabular/graphical approach to find a suitable production plan by
trying both the chase and uniform strategies. Then develop a suitable mixed strategy that
would result in lower total cost compared to the other two strategies.