Refer to the scenario described in Prob. 3.4-9 (Chap. 3), but ignore the instructions given there. Focus instead on using spreadsheet modeling to address Web Mercantile’s problem by doing the following.
(a) Visualize where you want to finish. What numbers will Web Mercantile require? What are the decisions that need to be made? What should the objective be?
(b) Suppose that Web Mercantile were to lease 30,000 square feet for all five months and then 20,000 additional square feet for the last three months. Calculate the total costs by hand.
(c) Make a rough sketch of a spreadsheet model, with blocks laid out for the data cells, changing cells, output cells, and objective cell.
(d) Build a spreadsheet model for months 1 and 2, and then thoroughly test the model.
(e) Expand the model to full scale, and then solve it.