Final answer:
The firm should order 1206 bolts to maintain a 99 percent service level, considering the average demand, standard deviation, order cycle, lead time, and current inventory.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate how many bolts a firm should order using a fixed time period model with a given average daily demand, standard deviation, order cycle, lead time, current inventory on hand, and desired service level, we can follow these steps:
- Calculate the average demand over the order cycle plus lead time.
- Determine the safety stock required for the desired service level.
- Compute the reorder point.
- Calculate the order quantity by subtracting the on-hand inventory from the sum of the average demand during the reorder period and safety stock.
Step 1: The average demand over the order cycle plus lead time (28 days in total) is 43 bolts per day * 28 days = 1204 bolts.
Step 2: To calculate the safety stock, you need to find the z-score corresponding to the 99% service level and multiply it by the standard deviation of the demand during the reorder period. The z-score for a 99% service level is approximately 2.33. The standard deviation of the demand during the reorder period is 6 bolts per day * sqrt(28 days) = 6 * 5.29 = 31.74 bolts.
So the safety stock is 2.33 * 31.74 = approximately 74 bolts.
Step 3: The reorder point is just the average demand over the order cycle plus lead time, which is 1204 bolts.
Step 4: The order quantity is 1204 + 74 - 72 = 1206 bolts.
Therefore, the firm should order 1206 bolts to maintain a 99 percent service level.