Pioneer Case

The case provides some useful context for the problem, but you don't need to read it too closely.

Read the case, and then use the data file <Pioneer LP Data.xls> to make a Solver model that minimizes total costs (transportation costs to the three plants, plus transportation costs to the two markets, plus production costs at the three plants), while satisfying constraints on:

Demand (each of the 2 markets has a specific demand for each of the 8 products),

Production (each of the 32 product/area combinations has a maximum production volume)

Land: (each of the areas has a maximum)

Drier Capacity: (each plant has a maximum) It's a good idea to make these decisions in 1000s of units instead of single units, to avoid scaling problems in Solver. This is a hard problem; I wouldn't leave it until the last minute.

Here's another hint about the Pioneer case. I'm focusing on one piece of it for purposes of illustration, the "transportation to market" piece. Start with decisions you make. Overall, you're deciding 192 things (8 products x 4 areas x 3 plants x 2 markets). Figure out a way to lay those decisions out in your spreadsheet, and make it so you can add things up across the various dimensions.

Price: $10.95

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 5 pages, 595 words and 4 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document