Rice Transportation Problem There are five silos (suppliers) coded as A, B, C, D and E in Louisiana supplying rice regularly to buyers in four major cities of Louisiana. The related data has been collected from the concerned suppliers for the purpose of a mathematical formulation of the transportation problem. The transportation cost of different suppliers to the same destination varies to some extent due to their own policies and distances. Transportation costs per ton of rice from suppliers to destinations (Shreveport, Alexandria, Lake Charles and Lafayette) are displayed in Table 1. Table 1: Transportation cost (S/Ton). Table 2 shows the quantity available at these suppliers and Table 3 shows the total demand by the buyers from these suppliers during a year. Table 2: Available quantity (Tons) Table 3: Total demand at different destinations The objective of this transportation problem is to find the optimum quantities of rice supply from each supplier to each buyer's destination to minimize the total cost of transportation. The demand at each destination has to be satisfied by not exceeding the available quantity from any supplier. Answer each question, in the same order, starting on a new page (otherwise you lose -2 points): 1 of 2 Q6. [5 points] Present the original problem (Tables 1,2 and 3) in a transportation table (given at the end of the exercise). Using the tabular values find an initial basic feasible solution (BFS) and the total transportation cost by one of the following method depending on the number of students in your group*: (a) Northwest Corner Method (1-member group) (b) Least Cost Method. (2-member group) (c) Vogel Approximation Method ( 3 or more-member group) Q7. [15points] Starting with the BFS obtained in Q6, find the optimum solution by the Iterative/multiplier Method (i.e, uv Method). Show all iterative solutions in each table [sample MS Word table is provided at the end]. Write the transportation solution and the total cost of transportation. Table 0: RSF Solution