XYZ Corporation has a one-year contract to supply motors for all refrigerators produced by the IA Corporation. IA manufactures the refrigerators at four locations around the country: Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and St. Paul. Plans call for the following number (in thousands) of refrigerators to be produced at each location:

Boston	80
Dallas	100
Los Angeles	70
St. Paul	100

XYZs three plants are capable of producing the motors. The plants and production capacities (in thousands) are as follows:

Denver	150
Atlanta	200
Chicago	80

Because of varying production and transportation costs, the profit that XYZ earns on each lot of 1000 units depends on which plant produced the lot and which destination it was shipped to. The following table gives the accounting department estimates of the profit per unit (shipments will be made in lots of 1000 units):

		Shipped To
Produced At	Boston	Dallas	Los Angeles	St. Paul
Denver	8	18	13	10
Atlanta	20	17	8	13
Chicago	7	11	15	16

With profit maximization as a criterion, XYZs management wants to determine how many motors should be produced at each plant and how many motors should be shipped from each plant to each destination.

1. Find the optimal solution and the maximum profit. In which plant there will be idle capacity?

2. Do alternative optimal solutions exist? Justify your answer.

3. If they exist, use the stepping stone algorithm and find the second optimal solution. Present your analysis in a graphically neat manner. Use any drawing technique you like just make sure it looks fairly professional.

4. Finally, produce the third optimal solution by taking a combination of 30% of the first optimal solution and 70% of the second one.

5. Attach all relevant exhibits from Excels Solver calculations. Use PrintScreen, edit/copy/paste, etc. whatever you like.