AGGREGATE PLANNING IN A LAW FIRM. Klasson and Avalon, a medium-size Tampa law firm of 32 legal professionals, wants to develop an aggregate plan for the next quarter. The firm has developed 3 forecasts of billable hours for the next quarter for each of 5 categories of legal business it performs (column 1, Table 13.8). The 3 forecasts (best, likely, and worst) are shown in columns 2, 3, and 4 of Table 13.8.
| TABLE 13.8 | Labor Allocation at Klasson and Avalon, Forecasts for Coming Quarter (1 lawyer = 500 hours of labor) | ||||
| FORECASTED LABOR-HOURS REQUIRED | CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS | ||||
| (1) CATEGORY OF LEGAL BUSINESS |
(2) BEST (HOURS) |
(3) LIKELY (HOURS) |
(4) WORST (HOURS) |
(5) MAXIMUM DEMAND FOR PERSONNEL |
(6) NUMBER OF QUALIFIED PERSONNEL |
| Trial work | 1,800 | 1,500 | 1,200 | 3.6 | 4 |
| Legal research | 4,500 | 4,000 | 3,500 | 9.0 | 32 |
| Corporate law | 8,000 | 7,000 | 6,500 | 16.0 | 15 |
| Real estate law | 1,700 | 1,500 | 1,300 | 3.4 | 6 |
| Criminal law | 3,500 | 3,000 | 2,500 | 7.0 | 12 |
| Total hours | 19,500 | 17,000 | 15,000 | ||
| Lawyers needed | 39 | 34 | 30 | ||
APPROACH \blacktriangleright If we make some assumptions about the workweek and skills, we can provide an aggregate plan for the firm. Assuming a 40-hour workweek and that 100% of each lawyer’s hours are billed, about 500 billable hours are available from each lawyer this fiscal quarter.
