Al Bergman, Staff Traffic Analyst at the Corporate Headquarters of Computer

Essay

Al Bergman, staff traffic analyst at the corporate headquarters of Computer Products Corporation (CPC), is developing a monthly shipping plan for the El Paso and Atlanta manufacturing plants to follow next year. These plants manufacture specialized computer workstations that are shipped to five regional warehouses. Al has developed these estimated requirements and costs: $$\begin{array} { l c r r r r r } &&& { \text { Warehouse } } \\\text { Plant } & \text { Chicago } & \text { Dallas } & \text { Denver } & \begin{array} { c } \text { New } \\\text { York }\end{array} & \text { San Jose } & \begin{array} { c } \text { Monthly Plant } \\\text { Production (units) }\end{array} \\\hline \text { Atlanta } & \$ 35 & \$ 40 & \$ 60 & \$ 45 & \$ 90 & 200 \\\text { El Paso } & 50 & 30 & 35 & 95 & 40 & 300 \\\hline \begin{array} { l } \text { Monthly } \\\text { Warehouse }\end{array} & & & & & & \\\begin{array} { l } \text { Requirements } \\\text { (units) }\end{array} & 75 & 100 & 25 & 150 & 150\end{array}$$ Determine how many workstations should be shipped per month from each plant to each warehouse to minimize monthly shipping costs, and compute the total shipping cost.
a.Use the minimum cost method to find an initial feasible solution.
b.Use the transportation simplex method to find an optimal solution.
c.Compute the optimal total shipping cost.