A Soft Drink Manufacturing Company Has 3 Factories-One in Orlando

Essay

A soft drink manufacturing company has 3 factories-one in Orlando, one in Tampa, and one in Port St. Lucie-which supply soft drink bottles to 3 warehouses located in the city of Miami. The associated per-unit transportation cost table is provided below. $$\begin{array}{l}\text { Transportation Costs (\$) }\\\begin{array} { l c c c } \hline \text { Factories/Warehouse (W) } & \text { W1 } & \text { W2 } & \text { W3 } \\\hline \text { Orlando } & 4 & 3 & 7 \\\text { Tampa } & 7 & 6 & 4 \\\text { Port St. Lucie } & 3 & 6 & 6 \\\hline\end{array}\end{array}$$ The factory in Orlando has a capacity of 15,000 units.
The factory in Tampa has a capacity of 18,000 units.
The factory in Port St. Lucie has a capacity of 8,000 units.
The requirements of the warehouses are: $$\begin{array} { | l | c | } \hline \text { Warehouse } & \text { Requirement (Bottles) } \\\hline \text { W1 } & 18,000 \\\hline \text { W2 } & 12,000 \\\hline \text { W3 } & 5,000 \\\hline\end{array}$$ ​
a. Determine how much of the company's production should be shipped from each factory to each warehouse in order to minimize the total transportation cost?
b. Find an alternative optimal solution for this transportation problem?