Problem: The Cost-Less Corp supplies its four retail outlets from its four plants. The shipping cost per shipment from each plant to each retail outlet is given below:
Retail Outlets
Plant 1 2 3 4
1 $500 $600 $400 $200
2 $200 $900 $100 $300
3 $300 $400 $200 $100
4 $200 $100 $300 $200
Plants 1, 2, 3, and 4 make 10, 20, 20, and 10 shipments per month, respectively. Retail outlets 1, 2, 3, and 4 need to receive 20, 10, 10, and 20 shipments per month, respectively.
The distribution manager, Randy Smith, now wants to determine the best plan for how many shipments to send from each plant to the respective retail outlets each month. Randy's objective is to minimize the shipping cost.
a) Formulate this problem on a spreadsheet and use Solver to find an optimal solution.