A hospital needs to purchase 3 gallons of perishable medicine for use during the current month and 4 gallons for use during the next month. Because the medicine is perishable, it can only be used during the month of purchase. Two companies, Daisy and Laroach, sell the medicine. The medicine is in short supply. Thus, during the next two months, the hospital is limited to buying at most 5 gallons from each company. Daisy charges $800 per gallon during the current month and $720 per gallon during the next month. Laroach charges $710 per gallon during the current month and $750 per gallon during the next month. The hospital wants to minimize the cost of purchasing the medicine while satisfying its need.
(a) Formulate this problem as a transportation problem by constructing the appropriate parameter table where column j represents the month and row i medicine seller/supplier.