You have been hired by the executives of City of Twin Rivers to conduct analyses in support of their “Care for our Children” program.
The city council of Twin Rivers recently passed a resolution to fund much needed child care facilities for the city. A total of ?850,000 has been made available to
buy or lease child care sites throughout the city. An initial survey of the requirements for city-supported facilities has already been conducted and that data will
form the basis of the sitting and facility selection analysis process. That initial survey indicated the need for facilities providing four categories of child care:
infant care, pre-school care, after school care, and drop-in care. The survey indicated the following minimum requirements for each category of child care. Naturally,
a goal of this program is not only to try and cover these minimum requirements, but also to try and maximize the total number of child care slots created.
Category Requirements*
Infant care 200
Pre-school care 250
After-school care 325
Drop-in care 150
*all requirements are in terms of available slots
Various sites have been identified and these sites are either for lease or for sale. The leased sites require no additional modification at city expense. All
modification expenses are borne by the site owner. The sites for sale will require some level of renovation and these renovation costs have been rolled into the
purchase cost for the site. Additionally, some types of maintenance on leased sites will be borne by the owner reducing the expected maintenance costs the city must
cover. The sites and the pertinent information about those sites is summarized in the table below. Note that all costs are in ?1000s. Each site was also assessed
regarding the relative “safety” of the site. Safety issues included such things as parking, condition of the grounds, and condition of the structure. A safety index
was used with each site rated as 1 for acceptably safe, 2 for marginally safe, and 3 for marginally safe given some modifications. Any sites surveyed found
unacceptable in the safety department were dropped from further consideration.
Child Slots Supported
Safety
Infant Pre-school After Drop-in Type of Cost of Maintenance Index of
Facility Care Care school care Care Facility Facility Cost Facility
1 50 – 75 50 RENT ?145.00 ?11.98 1
2 40 – 75 60 RENT ?146.00 ?12.03 2
3 – 70 75 30 RENT ?139.50 ?11.71 2
4 75 40 – 30 RENT ?136.50 ?11.56 1
5 50 – – 75 BUY ?125.00 ?26.98 1
6 – 90 – 75 BUY ?156.50 ?60.56 3
7 25 – 80 40 BUY ?115.50 ?42.51 2
8 – 85 100 – RENT ?137.25 ?11.59 2
9 85 50 75 – BUY ?169.00 ?61.18 3
10 100 75 75 – BUY ?203.75 ?30.92 1
11 60 – – 75 RENT ?134.00 ?11.43 3
12 40 40 40 40 RENT ?139.00 ?11.68 2
13 – 85 – 65 BUY ?142.25 ?43.84 2
14 75 85 75 – BUY ?189.75 ?30.22 1
15 65 – 75 30 BUY ?138.50 ?43.66 2
These new facilities will require staffing. The city council would like insight into the number of new staff required and the subsequent annual personnel budget to
accommodate these new positions. Medical, administration, and of course providers are required for the facilities. The desired level of staffing is based on a
projected child-to-staff ratio. For planning purposes, a Created Slot-to-Staff ratio can be employed.
Ratios Refer to Child-to-Staff Ratio
Type of
Personnel Annual Cost
of Position Overall
Ratio Infant
Ratio Pre-School
Ratio After-School
Ratio Drop-In
Ratio
Medical ?16,000 40:1
Administration ?25,000 80:1
Providers ?13,000 3:1 6:1 15:1 7:1
Maintainers** ?21,000
** One maintainer per facility.
Although the city council has agreed to fund this project for approximately ?850,000, reasonable targets for maintenance and personnel costs, and safety index
levels must be established. The city council members would not only like recommendations on site selection that account for all the goals established for this project,
they would like a summary breakout of the personnel requirements and costs associated with the recommended options. (Case study adapted from Ragsdale (2014))
Required:
(a) Formulate and implement appropriate multiple objective linear programming and goal programming optimization model(s) to provide a recommendations for the ?
Care for our Children? programme using appropriate software.
(b) Critically evaluate the ethical implications of the recommendation(s) you have made above in the context of the literature on ethical decision making with
suggestions for justifiable changes to the original recommendation(s).
11. Assessment criteria
The attached assessment grid will be used in marking your work
12. Special instructions
Your attention is drawn to the University Regulations for Assessment Section 7
Careful referencing of sources is vital when making use of the work of others. You are expected to employ the referencing conventions recommended in the
Field/Course. These conventions apply to information taken from internet sources, as well as books, journals and lectures. These are some of the points you should
check before submitting your work:
? are all direct quotations, from both primary and secondary sources, suitably acknowledged (placed in quotation marks or indented)?
? have you provided full details of the source of the quotation, according to the referencing convention used in the Field?
? have you acknowledged the source of ideas not your own, even if you are not quoting directly from the source?
? have you avoided close paraphrase from sources? (Check that you are not presenting other people?s words or phrasing as if they are your own.)
? if you have worked closely with others in preparing for this assessment, is the material you are presenting sufficiently your own?
