Aggregate Planning Applied to Services: Tucson Parks and Recreation Department
Charting and graphic techniques are also very useful for aggregate planning in service applications. The following example shows how a city's parks and recreation department could use the alternatives of full-time employees. part-time employ and. ubcontractingto meet its commitment to provide service to the city. The Tucson Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for developing and maintaining open space, all public recreational programs. adult sports leagues. golf courses, tennis courts, pools, and so forth. There are 336 Ill-tire-equivalent employee, (FTEs). Of these, 216 are full-time permanent personnel who provide the administration and year round maintenance to all areas. The remaining 120 year-long FTE positions are part time, with about 75 percent of them being used during the summer and the remaining 25 percent being used in the fall, winter. and spring seasons. The 75 percent (or 90 Fre positions)
show up as approximately 800 part-time summer jobs: lifeguards, baseball umpires, and instructors in summer programs for children. The 800 part-time jobs are derived from 90 Fl'Es because e many of these positions last only for a month or two while the FTEs are based on employment for an entire year. Currently, the parks and recreation w re that is subcontracted amounts to less than S100.000. This is for the golf and tennis pros and for grounds maintenance at the library and veterans cemetery. Because of the nature of city employment, the probable bad public image. and civil service rules. the option to hire and fire full-time help daily and/or weekly to meet seasonal demand is pretty much out of the question. However, temporary part-time help is authorized.
and traditional. Also, it is virtually impossible to have regular (full-time) staff for all of the summer jobs. During the summer months, the approximately 800 part-time employees are staffing many programs that occur simultaneously, prohibiting level scheduling over a normal 40-hour week. Also, a wider variety of skills are required than can be expected from full-time employees (e.g., umpires; coaches; lifeguards; teachers of ceramics, guitar, karate, belly dancing, and yoga). Under t ese conditions, the following three options are open to the department in its
aggregate planning.
I. The present method, which is to maintain a medium-level full-time staff and schedule work during off seasons (such as rebuilding baseball fields during the winter months) and to use part-time help during peak demands
