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Example 2: Transportation Problem.

Minimize the costs of shipping goods from production plants to warehouses near metropolitan demandcenters, while not exceeding the supply available from each plant and meeting the demand from eachmetropolitan area.

Number to ship from plant x to warehouse y (at intersection):

Color Coding

Plants:TotalTijuanaLeonMazatlanLa Paz

Monterrey150000060009000Target cellGuadalajara60000060000Mexico1400001100030000Puebla1100010000100000Changing cells------------ Totals:1000012000150009000Constraints

Demands by Whse -->

1000012000150009000

Plants:SupplyShipping costs from plant x to warehouse y (at intersection):

Monterrey15000711038898Guadalajara600085809090Mexico1400080977890Puebla1100084799099

Shipping:

$3,630,000

$840,000 $1,146,000 $762,000 $882,000 The problem presented in this model involves the shipment of goods from three plants to five regionalwarehouses. Goods can be shipped from any plant to any warehouse, but it obviously costs more toship goods over long distances than over short distances. The problem is to determine the amountsto ship from each plant to each warehouse at minimum shipping cost in order to meet the regionaldemand, while not exceeding the plant supplies.

Problem Specifications

Target cellB20Goal is to minimize total shipping cost.Changing cellsC8:G10Amount to ship from each plant to eachwarehouse.ConstraintsB8:B10<=B16:B18Total shipped must be less than or equal tosupply at plant.C12:G12>=C14:G14Totals shipped to warehouses must be greaterthan or equal to demand at warehouses.C8:G10>=0Number to ship must be greater than or equalto 0.amounts to ship are integers, if all of the supply and demand constraints are integers. You can solve this problem faster by selecting the

Assume linear model

check box in the

Solver

Options

dialog box before clicking

Solve

. A problem of this type has an optimum solution at which