The General Store sells a variety of outdoor clothing items and equipment and several food products at its modern but rustic-looking retail store. Its food products include salmon and dates syrup. The store also runs a lucrative catalog operation. One of its most popular products is dates syrup, which is sold in metal half-gallon cans with a picture of the store on the front.
Dates syrup was one of the first products the store produced and sold, and it continues to do so. Setting up the syrup making equipment to produce a batch of syrup will cost $480. Storing the syrup for sales throughout the year is a tricky process because the syrup must be kept in a temperature-controlled facility. The annual cost of carrying a gallon of the syrup is $16. Based on past sales data, the store has forecasted a demand of 7,800 gallons of pomegranate syrup for the coming year. The store can produce approximately 100 gallons of syrup per day during the date syrup season, which runs from March through August.
Due to the demand for the syrup, the store must produce enough during these 6-months to meet the demand for the whole year. Specifically, store management would like a production and inventory schedule that minimizes costs and indicates when during the year they need to start operating the syrup-making facility full time on a daily basis to meet demand for the remaining 6 months.
Develop a syrup production and inventory schedule for the General Store.