Consider the following transportation table where the values in the upper-right-hand corner of each cell represent unit shipping cost:
To: Warehouse Warehouse Warehouse
From: # 1 # 2 # 3 Supply
Plant A 50 32 40 700
Plant B 16 30 20 200
Plant C 35 28 42 200
Demand 300 400 400
a. Formulate it as a linear programming problem.
b. Use Excel and develop a distribution plan that minimizes total shipping cost.
c. If route 3-A is a unacceptable for some reason, what distribution plan would be optimal? What would its total cost be?