Q1.

Potatoes are grown and harvested on farms in the Midwest and then shipped to
distribution centers in Kansas City, Omaha and Des Moines where they are cleaned and
sorted. These distribution centers supply three manufacturing plants operated by the Frodo-
Lane Foods Company, located in Chicago, St Louis and Cincinnati. where they make potato
chips. Potatoes are shipped to manufacturing plants by railroad or truck. Each distribution
center is able to supply the following tons of potatoes to the plant on a monthly basis:
Distribution Center Supply
Kansas City 150
Omaha 175
Des Moines 275
Total 600 tons

Each plant demands the following tons of potatoes per month.

Plant Demand
Chicago 200
St. Louis 100
Cincinnati 300
Total 600 tons

The cost of transporting 1 ton of potatoes from each distribution center(source) to each plant
(destination) differs according to the distance and method of transport. These costs are shown
next.

    Plant
Distribution
Centers Chicago St.Louis Cincinnati
Kansas City 6 8 10
Omaha 7 11 11
Des Moines 4 5 12

The problem is to determine how many tons of potatoes to transport from each distribution
center to each plant on a monthly basis to minimize the transportation cost.
Q2 A manufacturer of washing machines in the process of locating regional warehouses in
four geographical locations in south India to serve the markets. The markets are
geographically and organizationally split into five segments. Based on the forecasting
estimates by the marketing department, it has been found that the average monthly demand
for the washing machine is 2000, 1500, 1200,2800 and 2500 in each of the market segments.
Based on this forecast and other costs including the fixed and variable cost of setting up
warehouses, it has decided to build four warehouses with a capacity to handle monthly
requirements to the extent of 2900,2300,3700 and 1100 units respectively. Due to the
geographical spread of the warehouses and the markets, the transportation cost per unit is
different between these pairs of warehouses and market segments. Figure presents the cost of
transporting one unit. Identify the most cost-effective way of serving the markets from these
warehouses.
 Market 1 Market 2 Market 3 Market 4 Market 5
Warehouse A 100 70 50 30 40
Warehouse B 30 95 40 125 50
Warehouse C 75 20 65 40 30
Warehouse D 20 40 95 85 80

Q3 Solve the following Transportation problem.

  D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 Supply
S1 50 50 45 29 44 20 721
S2 29 26 47 45 37 23 620
S3 44 31 50 26 28 30 450
S4 46 21 49 25 41 40 587
S5 48 47 43 40 39 30 690
Demand 560 580 459 700 668 416  

Q4 In the first question with respect to potato shipment, if the supply capacity at Des Moines
has been increased to 375 tons. What is the impact on the transportation problem.