A product design firm develops new products using a team of 4 types of specialists: Marketing specialists; Manufacturing specialists; Design specialists; and Engineering specialists. Each employee earns $100,000 per year and can perform their role on the team as follows: a A Marketing specialist has a capacity of 12 new products/yr (i.e., roughly 16 to 17 days of a Marketing Specialist's time are needed, assuming roughly 200 working days per year), a Manufacturing specialist has a capacity of 8 new products/yr; a Design specialist has a capacity of 11 new products/yr; and an Engineering specialist has a capacity of 6 new products/yr. Assume that if we hire multiple specialists of any give type, they can share the work on any one project and effectively scale up their function's capacity accourdingly (e.g., two Engineers have a capacity of 12 new products/yr).
The firm creates a team of some mix of Marketers, Manufacturers, Designers, and Engineers who then all work simultaneously to focus on developing only one product until that product is complete, and then they move to the next product. If we pick the lowest-cost alternative of the 4 following possibilities, what is the cost per project? Alternatives (Marketers, Manufacturers, Designers, and Engineers): 3, 4, 3, 5; or 3, 4, 3, 6; or 3, 5, 4, 6; or 2, 3, 2, 4.
Group of answer choices
a. $94
b. $11,450
c. $58,333.
d. $50,000.