Question: Question 5: A company manufactures office desks at two locations: O’Connor and Murton. The firm distributes the desks through regional warehouses located in Auburn, Stirling and Australind. Estimates of the monthly supplies available at each factory and the monthly office desk demands at each of the three warehouses are shown in the following table:-

The desks are shipped to three warehouses.

To ship office desks from a factory to a warehouse involves transportation costs (dollar costs per desk shipped).

All costs are in dollars.

a) Solve this problem using Excel. Write down the numbers desks shipped from each factory to each warehouse and the total cost of shipping involved (i.e. form a worded conclusion). (1.5 marks.)

b) Is this a balanced or unbalanced transportation problem? Show the signs for the demand and supply constraints (0.5 mark).