A manufacturing company purchases two component parts, A and B, from three different suppliers. The suppliers have limited capacity; no one supplier can meet all the company’s needs. In addition, the suppliers charge different prices for the components. Component price data (in price/unit) are:
Supplier
Component 1 2 3
A $12 $13 $14
B $10 $11 $9
Each supplier has limited capacity in terms of the total number of components it can supply. But each supplier can commit its total capacity to component A, component B, or any combination of the two components. Supplier capacities are:
Supplier
1 2 3
Capacity 600 1000 800
The manufacturing company needs 1000 units of component A and 800 units of component B. How many of each component should be ordered from each supplier, in order to minimize total cost?
Formulate a linear programming problem to determine the solution. State clearly the definition of your variables, and label clearly your constraints.