Four trucks (A, B, C and D) will be used to move goods from one terminal to four other terminals (1, 2, 3, 4). Any truck is available for making any one of the four trips. However, because of differences in the trucks and its cargo, the total cost of loading, transporting, and unloading the goods for the different Truck-Terminal combinations varies considerably, as shown in the following table.

1 2 3 4

Truck

A $600 $400 $500 $700

B 700 500 600 600

C 500 400 500 700

D 700 400 600 600

The objective is to assign the four trucks to four different terminals in such a way as to minimize the total cost for all four shipments.

a. Discuss in detail how this problem fits into the format of an assignment problem.

b. Formulate and solve this problem on a spreadsheet.

c. Due to construction, truck C can no longer be assigned to terminal 1. How does that change your results? Show a screenshot or duplicate your model to show how you calculated the new cost and assignments