how do I solve **without** excel . please show steps .

(A Transportation Problem) A steel company has to ship the ore needed, to make steel from the three different mines they are working on, to the four different plant locations where the steel will be made. The amount of ore that is available in tons) at the different mines, the minimum amount of ore needed (in tons) at the plant locations to process current orders, and the shipping cost in $) per ton from the various mines to the various plant locations are given in the follwing table. Available Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 Plant 4 at mine Mine 1 $400 $700 $850 $600 Mine 2 $300 $600 $700 $900 1500 Mine 3 $500 $300 $600 $500 1800 Needed 1200 at plant (a) Formulate a linear programming problem to determine how the shipments may be made so that the ore demands at the plant locations are met at minimum total shipping cost for this steel company. (b) Try to solve the "transportation problem" that you have formulated in (a) using any methods that 1200 900 1100 800 you know (c) Briefly indicate what a practical real-world instance of this transportation problem may look like