Distributors for 650,000 gallons of gasoline per month. In order to fulfill the contract, the company must purchase several new trucks and it has $600,000 available to spend on the necessary expansion of its fleet of trucks. Three model of trucks are available. Operating Cost Capacity Purchase and Depreciation Truck Model (gallons) Cost ($) ($/month) Big Tanker 5000 67,000 650 Regular Tanker 3000 55,000 525 Small Tanker 1700 46,000 450 Because of the size and speed differences of the trucks, the number of deliveries or round trips possible per month for each model will vary. Trip capacities are estimated at 15 trips per month for the Big Tanker, 20 trips per month for the Regular Tanker, and 25 trips per month for the Small Tanker. Based on maintenance and driver availability, the company does not want to buy more than 15 new trucks to its fleet. In addition, the company has decided to purchase at least three of the new Small Tanker for use on short-run, low-demand route. The company also does not want more than half of the new trucks to be Big Tankers. If the company wishes to satisfy the gasoline demand with a minimum monthly operating expense, how many models of each truck should be purchased? The following are the decision variables: B = number of Big Tanker to buy R = number of Regular Tanker to buy S = number of Small Tanker to buy
Use Solver to find the optimal solution and explain the meaning of the optimal solution.