Problem $2)(18$ points$)14$

Astro Industries of Minneapolis, MN$,$ sends weekly shipments to $24$ customers in Dallas. Each customer's order weighs, on average, $1,500$ pounds. A direct truck shipment from Minneapolis to Dallas costs $$2,250.$ The maximum load per truck is $40,000$ pounds.

a$)$ How much would it cost Astro to make direct, single$-$order shipments to all of its customers each week? What would the utilization level for the trucks look like? $(5$ points$)$

b$)$ Suppose a Dallas$-$based warehousing firm has agreed to run a break$-$bulk warehousing operation for Astro at a cost of $$125$ per hundred$-$weight. Local deliveries to each customer would tack on another $$200$ per customer per week. How much money could Astro save by going with the break$-$bulk solution? What would the utilization level for truck be in this case? $(8$ points$)$

c$)$ How high would the warehousing cost $($currently at $$125$ per hundred$-$weight$)$ have to be before break$-$bulk warehousing is no more attractive than direct shipments? $(5$ points$)$

Note: You can solve Parts a and b together as we did in class practice problem.