CB$2203$ Data$-$Driven Business Modeling

Assignment $2$

Please save your files as Asm$2-$XXXXXXXX$.$xlsx$/.$pdf$/.$docx as appropriate, where $xxxxxxxx$ is your student id number.

Question $1(32$ marks$)$

A logistics company maintains delivery vehicles at its six operational centres. The following network shows the locations of the operational centres as nodes and the route between two locations as arcs. In the network, a positive number near a node indicates an excess number of vehicles available for dispatch. Nodes with a negative number represent locations requiring delivery vehicles, and the requirement is the absolute value of the negative number. The cost to move a vehicle between two locations depends on the route distance and is indicated by the dollar value near the arc.

The problem on redistributing the vehicles among the locations in the least expensive way in order to meet the requirement on vehicles can be formulated by a linear program. Decision variables are defined in the following for every arc $ij$ in the network:

$x_{ij}=$ number $of$ vehicles $to$ move along route from location $ito$ location $j$

The linear program is developed into an Excel spreadsheet model and solved using Excel Solver. The optimal results are shown on the next page.

$\backslash$table$[[\backslash$table$[[$Start$],[$location$],[(i)$