1. Steel mills in three cities produce the following amounts of steel: Location Weekly Production [tons] A. Bethlehem 15D B. Birmingham 21D C. Cary 320 These mills supply steel to four cities. where manufacturing plants have the following demand: Location Weekly Demand (tons) 1. Detroit 13D 2. St. Louis TD 3. Chicago 18D 4. Norfolk 240 Shipping costs per ton of steel are as follows: To (cost) From 1 2 3 4 A $14 $ 9 $16 $18 B 11 B T 16 C 15 12 1D 22 a) Because of a truckers' strike. shipments are prohibited from Birmingham to Chicago. What is the optimal solution to the above transportation problem? b) What would be the effect on the optimal solution of a reduction in production capacity at the Cary mill from 320 tons to 290 tons per week? 2. National Foods Company has five plants where it processes and packages fruits and vegetables. It has suppliers in six cities in California. Texas. Alabama. and Florida. The company has owned and operated its own trucking system in the past for transporting fruits and vegetables from its suppliers to its plants. However. it is now considering outsourcing all its shipping to outside trucking rms and getting rid of its own trucks. It currently spends $245.DEIU per month to operate its own trucking system. It has determined monthly shipping costs (in thousands of dollars per ton] of using outside shippers from each of its suppliers to each of its plants. as shown in the following table