Socker Shoes manufactures “Made in the USA” sneakers at plants in Tallahassee, Florida, and Tucson, Arizona. The shoes are shipped weekly in truckloads from each of the two plants to four regional distribution warehouses located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Gary, Indiana, Houston, Texas, and Riverside, California. Inventory at each warehouse is evaluated on a weekly basis, and forecasts of demands for additional shoes are faxed to Socker Shoe’s management. This information determines the weekly production schedule for each plant and the shipping pattern between the plants and warehouses.
During the week of February 14, the following requests were received from the individual warehouses:
Each plant can produce up to 19,000 pairs of shoes for the week, and production costs for a pair of shoes are the same at each plant. The shoes are shipped via truck in lots of 1000 pairs. The forecasted shipping cost per truckload from each plant to each warehouse is given in the table for problem 35.
a. For the week of February 14, how many pairs of shoes should be produced in Tallahassee? in Tucson?
b. What is Socker Shoes’ minimum cost shipping pattern for the week of February 14? What will be the total shipping cost?