ABSTRACT
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The director of the youth summer employment program of a town must make a decision involving
a significant number of variables. As part of the federal effort to provide urban youth with construc-
tive activities during the idle summer months, the city has received funding to employ 1,500 young
people. The program will attract a large number of applicants; as many as 8,000 are expected.
The town wants to determine the optimal number of people to interview and hire the applicants, as
well as to assist them with completion of the required forms. Estimates indicate that this process
will take, on average, fifteen minutes per applicant. If the city opens only one booth, it will take
8,000!15 minutesZ120,000 minutes, or 2,000 working hours. One individual, operating one
booth and working a 40 hour week, could process all of the applications in one year (K2 weeks
vacation time). Fifty individuals operating 50 booths could complete the entire job within one
week. The director requires a thorough analysis of the variables in order to make a decision on the
optimum number of booths in terms of both time-and cost-efficiency.
