Case Study
Chase Manhattan Bank
The workload in many areas of bank operations has the characteristics
of a nonuniform distribution with respect to time of day.
For example, at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, the number
of domestic money transfer requests received from customers, if
plotted against time of day, would appear to have the shape of an
inverted U curve with the peak around 1 P.M. For efficient use of
resources, the personnel available should, therefore, vary correspondingly.
Figure 8.2 shows a typical workload curve and corresponding
personnel requirements at different hours of the day.
A variable capacity can be achieved effectively by employing
part-time personnel. Because part-timers are not entitled to
all the fringe benefits, they are often more economical than fulltime
employees. Other considerations, however, may limit the
extent to which part-time people can be hired in a given department.
The problem is to find an optimum workforce schedule
that would meet personnel requirements at any given time and
also be economical.
Some of the factors affecting personnel assignment are
listed here:
1. By corporate policy, part-time personnel hours are limited to
a maximum of 40% of the day’s total requirement.
2. Full-time employees work for 8 hours (1 hour for lunch
included) per day. Thus, a full-timer’s productive time is 35
hours per week.
3. Part-timers work for at least 4 hours per day but less than 8
hours and are not allowed a lunch break.
4. Fifty percent of the full-timers go to lunch between 11 A.M.
and noon, and the remaining 50% go between noon and 1 P.M.
5. The shift starts at 9 A.M. and ends at 7 P.M. (i.e., overtime is
limited to 2 hours). Any work left over at 7 P.M. is considered
holdover for the next day.
6. A full-time employee is not allowed to work more than
5 hours overtime per week. He or she is paid at the normal
rate for overtime hours—not at one-and-a-half times the normal
rate applicable to hours in excess of 40 per week. Fringe
benefits are not applied to overtime hours.
In addition, the following costs are pertinent:
1. The average cost per full-time personnel hour (fringe benefits
included) is $10.11.
2. The average cost per overtime personnel hour for full-timers
(straight rate excluding fringe benefits) is $8.08.
3. The average cost per part-time personnel hour is $7.82.
The personnel hours required, by hour of day, are given in
Table 8.9.
The bank’s goal is to achieve the minimum possible personnel
cost subject to meeting or exceeding the hourly workforce
requirements as well as the constraints on the workers
listed earlier.
Discussion Questions
1. What is the minimum-cost schedule for the bank?


Source: Adapted from Shyam L. Moondra. “An L. P. Model for Work Force
Scheduling for Banks,” Journal of Bank Research (Winter 1976): 299–301.
9_10 A.M. 4_5 P.M.
Hour Personnel Hours
Required
Workload
FIGURE 8.2
TABLE 8.9 Workforce Requirements
NUMBER OF PERSONNEL
TIME PERIOD REQUIRED
9–10 A.M. 14
10–11 25
11–12 26
12–1 P.M. 38
1–2 55
2–3 60
3–4 51
4–5 29
5–6 14
6–7 9 

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