The Medequip Company produces precision medical diagnostic equipment at two factories. Three medical centers have placed orders for this month’s production output. The table to the right shows what the cost would be for shipping each unit from each factory to each of these customers. Also shown are the number of units that will be produced at each factory and the number of units ordered by each customer. (Go to the next column.) 

Management now wants to determine the most economical plan for shipping the iron ore from the mines through the distribution network to the steel plant.

(a) Formulate a linear programming model for this problem.

(b) Solve this model by the simplex method.

A decision now needs to be made about the shipping plan for how many units to ship from each factory to each customer.

(a) Formulate a linear programming model for this problem.

(b) Solve this model by the simplex method