A company has to transport its product from 3 plants to 3 distribution centres.

The availability and demand for units of products, with unit transportation costs in rupees are given below. Find the optimal transport pattern. Plant P1 P2 P3 Demand Solution : Using Solver Step 1 - Enter the data in excel Availabili D1 D2 D3 ty 16 19 12 140 12 13 19 160 14 28 8 120 100 150 170 D1 16 12 14 100 Distribution Centre D2 D3 19 12 13 19 28 8 150 170 Availability 140 160 120

P1 P2 P3 dema nd

Step 2 copy and paste the data once again below the sheet

Step 3 - enter the objective function value ( sumproduct of B2:D4,B12:D14) the sumproduct refers to the sum of the digits times the product of the digits

Step 4: make one more column and row titled as total and insert the sum formular in f2 as =sum(b2:d2) and drag it from F2 to F4

Step 5

Same as above now enter the sum product in the row column and drag the cell till d6

Step 6 delete the cells from B2 to D4 ( marked yellow for your reference )

These cells constitute the variable cells in solver ( in other words solver will enter the values in these cells and such that the total does not exceed availability or demand or as specified by us)

Step 7 go to data and click on solver the dialog box should open as shown

Step 8 enter the cell b8 as the target cell

Step 9 since it is a minimization problem ( reducing transportation costs) click on min

Step 10 click on box below changing cells and select the blank variable cells ( marked yellow )

Step 11 click on the add button ( a dialog box showing add constraint will open up)

Step 12 now click on cell reference and select the total column (f2:f4) since the total cannot exceed availability we have to click less than or equal to from the drop down box next to the cell reference (<=) click e2: e4 for availability click add

Step 13 - same as above you have to do the same for the row column total Remember in this case the total should be equal to demand ( as in the problem we have to ensure that the demand is fully met) Click OK

Step 14 click on options tick on assume linear model and assume nonnegative and click ok

Step 15 Click solve and tick on keep solver equation ( default ) Click on answer, sensitivity and limits in the reports column

Step 16 click Ok and you can see the optimum transportation cost at Rs.5070 and also each of the allocations of demand being matched to the availability ( viz B2,C3,D4,D2,B3) ( as pointed out above this is the sumproduct of 90x 16 + 10 x12 + 150 x 13 + 50 x 12 + 120 x 8)