no change in quantity.

Answer

In conclusion, Flooring and Beyond, Inc. is a U$.$S$.-$based

importer and producer of flooring products that has been

receiving steady demand from its major customers. The

company currently utilizes less$-$than$-$truckload services to ship

its products from the manufacturing facilities to the customer

locations. The company executives are considering opening

new distribution centers that will serve as transshipment

points to possibly reduce the total operating costs. A detailed

cost analysis was performed to understand whether any cost

savings could be achieved.

The optimization model developed in Question $1$ showed that

the current distribution plan minimizes the total distribution

costs in the current configuration. Without doing any further

analysis, the supply chain network with distribution centers

used as transshipment points can achieve cost savings by

reducing transportation costs, consolidating shipments, and

improving delivery times. However, there might be some

trade$-$offs in designing the network to include distribution

centers, such as higher fixed costs and increased complexity in

managing the network.

The new optimization model developed in Question $3$

determined that introducing distribution centers can

generate cost savings for Flooring and Beyond, Inc. The

model optimally determined whether a distribution center

should be made operational and generated a new

distribution plan that minimized the total distribution

cost and the fixed cost of operating the distribution

centers. The results showed that operating a distribution

center in Tulsa, OK$,$ and another one in Charleston, WV$,$

$1$ can achieve cost savings of $$11,200$ per quarter.

Overall, introducing distribution centers as transshipment

points can be a viable strategy for Flooring and Beyond, Inc.

to reduce its operating costs and improve its supply chain

network efficiency.

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