Noble Amazon sells books online. Management is trying to determine the best sites for the company's

warehouses. The five potential sites under consideration are listed in the first column of the table below.

Most of the sales come from customers in the United States. The average weekly demand from each

region of the country, the fixed cost per week of each warehouse if it is operated, and the maximum

capacity of each warehouse $($if it is operated$)$ are shown in the following table.

Noble Amazon wants to determine which warehouse site should operate and how books should be

distributed from each warehouse to each region of the country to minimize the total cost.

a$.$ Is it a balanced transportation problem? Justify. $(2$ points$)$

b$.$ Define the decision variables of this problem. $(5$ points$)$

c$.$ Formulate algebraically the supply$/$warehouse constraints for this model. $(5$ points$)$

d$.$ Formulate this problem on a spreadsheet and use Excel's Solver to determine which warehouse

site should operate and how books should be distributed from each warehouse to each region in

the country to minimize the total cost. $($Provide the corresponding "Excel Spreadsheet" and the

"Answer Report"$).$ Include "managerial statements" that communicate the results of the

analyses $($i$.$e$.$ describe verbally the results$).(20$ points$)$