DryIce, Inc., is a manufacturer of air conditioners anticipates nationwide demand in thousands of units for the next year to be160 in the East, 100 in the South,120 in the Midwest, and 180 in the West. The product is delivered to the customers from a regional Distribution Center (DC) whose coordinates are shown in the data below. DryIce has selected four potential plant sites—A, B, C and D. Plant opened in any city would have a capacity of 300 thousand units per year. For each potential location, the annual fixed costs for the plants, coordinates, the variable costs per unit, and the shipping costs to each of the four DC are shown in the table below. PLEASE POST THE WHOLE EXCEL SOLUTION

Plant	Shipping Costs to DC in Regions ($/unit)				VC	Fixed cost	Coordinates
Locations	East	South	Midwest	West	Per unit	thousands		X, Y
New York	7	9	10	11	$200	$800/yr		700,700
Chicago	9	8	5	10	$200	$700/yr		500,800
Atlanta	10	7	4	9	$180	$500/yr		600,400
San Diego	9	6	8	5	$220	$700/yr		300,300
Coordinates	800,700	400,500	400,800	200,400

1. Where should the plant be opened and at what capacity each should be operated assuming that we ship directly from each open plant various DCs?

2. Specify the shipping schedule for part a) and the summary of costs:

Plant	Regions				Remaining
Locations	East	South	Midwest	West	Capacity
New York
Chicago
Atlanta
San Diego
Demand Met

Total Annual Shipping Cost : _______________________________________

Total Annual Variable Cost: _________________________________________

Total annual Fixed Cost: _____________________________________________

Total Annual Cost: ____________________________________________

The company is thinking about building a hub where items could be shipped in bulk from the operating plants and the hub and then to the DCs in each region. The shipping costs from any plant to hub would $ .01/unit/mile and from hub to any DC would be $.015/unit/mile. What would best hub location and does it make economic sense to build the hub? Why?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Part A Given the data the optimal solution would be to open two plants one in New York and one in At... View the full answer