Question: West Virginia Virtuoso Widgets has three manufacturing centers and three distribution centers located throughout the Mountain State. The three manufacturing centers are in Fairmont, Lewisburg and Parkersburg, and the distribution centers are in Huntington, Martinsburg, and Wheeling. Its manufacturing centers product the following numbers of its specialty wild and wonderful widgets daily: Fairmont, 75; Lewisburg, 200; and Parkersburg, 125. Its distribution centers need the following number of wild and wonderful widgets daily in order to meet demand: Huntington, 120; Martinsburg, 80; and Wheeling, 200. The transportation costs associated with moving the company's wild and wonderful widgets from any of the three manufacturing centers to any of the three distribution centers are summarized in the following table.

How can West Virginia Virtuoso Widgets minimize transportation costs when shipping 400 of its wild and wonderful widgets from its various manufacturing centers to its various distribution centers in the most cost effective manner? (a) Create a table that corresponds to this information, with manufacturing centers as column headings, listed alphabetically, and distribution centers as row headings, again listed alphabetically. (b) Construct the linear programming problem statement, including the objective function with all nine independent variables, as well as all six constraints, plus appropriate non-negativity constraints.