Sunchem, a manufacturer of printing inks, has three chemical suppliers worldwide. Their locations and capacities are given in the data file. They have located potential sites for manufacturing facilities in China, Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The capacities and the cost of producing and transporting 1 ton of ink to each facility from the suppliers is also given in the data file. Given that their primary market is in North America and Europe, they have also located potential warehouse locations in Chicago, Louisville, Alberta, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Cologne and Leipzig. The capacities and transportation costs at each warehouse are given in the data file. Management must come up with a plan to decide which facilities are going to be open and how to manage the whole supply chain.
a) Do we have unutilized capacities are our suppliers? How much are they?
b) Which manufacturing facilities are open? List any unused capacities at the manufacturing facilities.