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Distribution/Logistics Examples
On each example worksheet, read the comments at the bottom of the sheet, then
click Tools Solver... to examine the decision variables, constraints, and objective.
To find the optimal solution, click the Solve button.
An important group of Solver applications is based on distribution or network models.
The amount of money that companies save each year by applying linear programming
towards their distribution problems is enormous.

In this series we will look at a simple transportation problem in worksheet Transport1, then
extend it to a 2-level multi-product model in worksheets Transport2 and Transport3.

We'll also examine a frequently encountered class of problems called 'knapsack'

problems, in worksheet Knapsack. As an example we will look at a truck that has to
transport different kinds of gas.

In the Facility worksheet we will look at a facility location problem, where a company has
to decide if it's profitable to close down one or more of their plants and save overall costs.

Finally, in the Prodtran worksheet, we will examine a combination production and

transportation model where the number of products made in plants depends on choices
made in distribution. This kind of combination is often possible, but many users prefer to
split these models up into smaller ones to simplify the problem.

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Transportation Problem 1
Minimize the costs of shipping goods from factories to customers, while not exceeding
the supply available from each factory and meeting the demand of each customer.

Cost of shipping ($ per product)

Destinations
Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5
Factory 1 $1.75 $2.25 $1.50 $2.00 $1.50
Factory 2 $2.00 $2.50 $2.50 $1.50 $1.00
Number of products shipped
Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total Capacity
Factory 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 60,000
Factory 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 60,000
Total 0 0 0 0 0
Demand 30,000 23,000 15,000 32,000 16,000
Total cost of shipping $

Problem
A company wants to minimize the cost of shipping a product from 2 different factories to 5 different customers.
Each factory has a limited supply and each customer a certain demand. How should the company distribute the
product?

Solution
1) The variables are the number of products to ship from each factory to the customers. These are given the
name Products_shipped in worksheet Transport1.
2) The logical constraint is
Products_shipped >= 0 via the Assume Non-Negative option
The other two constraints are
Total_received >= Demand
Total_shipped <= Capacity
3) The objective is to minimize cost. This is given the name Total_cost.

Remarks
This is a transportation problem in its simplest form. Still, this type of model is widely used to save many
housands of dollars each year.
In worksheet Transport2 we will consider a 2-level transportation, and in worksheet Transport3 we expand this to
a multi-product, 2-level transportation problem.

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Transportation Problem 2 (2-stage-transport)
Minimize the costs of shipping goods from factories to warehouses and customers, and
warehouses to customers, while not exceeding the supply available from each factory or
the capacity of each warehouse, and meeting the demand from each customer.

Cost of shipping ($ per product)

Destinations
Warehouse 1Warehouse 2Warehouse 3Warehouse 4
Factory 1 $0.50 $0.50 $1.00 $0.20
Factory 2 $1.50 $0.30 $0.50 $0.20

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5

Factory 1 $1.75 $2.50 $1.50 $2.00 $1.50
Factory 2 $2.00 $2.50 $2.50 $1.50 $1.00

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5

Warehouse 1 $1.50 $1.50 $0.50 $1.50 $3.00
Warehouse 2 $1.00 $0.50 $0.50 $1.00 $0.50
Warehouse 3 $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 $2.00 $0.50
Warehouse 4 $2.50 $1.50 $0.20 $1.50 $0.50
Number of products shipped
Warehouse 1Warehouse 2Warehouse 3Warehouse 4 Total
Factory 1 0 20,000 0 15,000 35,000
Factory 2 45,000 0 11,000 0 56,000
Total 45,000 20,000 11,000 15,000
Capacity 45,000 20,000 30,000 15,000

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total

Factory 1 10,000 0 0 15,000 0 25,000 Factory
Factory 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Capacity
Total products shipped out of factory 160,000 60,000
Total products shipped out of factory 256,000 60,000

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total

Warehouse 1 0 23,000 0 17,000 5,000 45,000
Warehouse 2 20,000 0 0 0 0 20,000
Warehouse 3 0 0 0 0 11,000 11,000
Warehouse 4 0 0 15,000 0 0 15,000
Total 30,000 23,000 15,000 32,000 16,000
Demands 30,000 23,000 15,000 32,000 16,000
Total cost of shipping ###

Problem
A company has 2 factories, 4 warehouses and 5 customers. It wants to minimize the cost of shipping its
product from the factories to the warehouses, the factories to the customers, and the warehouses to the
customers. The number of products received by a warehouse from the factory should be the same as the
number of products leaving the warehouse to the customers. How should the company distribute the products?

Solution
1) The variables are the number of products to ship from the factories to the warehouses, the factories to the

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customers, and the warehouses to the customers. These are defined in worksheet Transport2 as
Factory_to_warehouse, Factory_to_customer, Warehouse_customer.
2) The logical constraints are all defined via the Assume Non-Negative option:
Factory_to_warehouse >= 0
Factory_to_customer >= 0
Warehouse_customer >= 0
The other constraints are
Total_from_factory <= Factory_capacity
Total_to_customer >= Demand
Total_to_warehouse <= Warehouse_capacity
Total_to_warehouse = Total_from_warehouse
3) The objective is to minimize cost, given by Total_cost.

Remarks
Please note that the last constraint must be an '=' , because otherwise products would start piling up at the
warehouse. It would be possible to make this a multi-period model where storage at the warehouses would be
possible and even desired, if transportation prices would fluctuate during the different time periods. In
worksheet Transport3 we will look at a multi-product situation.

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Transportation Problem 3 (2-stage-transport, multi-commodity)
Minimize the costs of shipping 3 different goods from factories to warehouses and customers, and
warehouses to customers, while not exceeding the supply available from each factory or
the capacity of each warehouse, and meeting the demand from each customer.

Cost of shipping ($ per product)

Destinations
Warehouse 1Warehouse 2Warehouse 3Warehouse 4
Factory 1 Product 1 $0.50 $0.50 $1.00 $0.20
Product 2 $1.00 $0.75 $1.25 $1.25
Product 3 $0.75 $1.25 $1.00 $0.80
Factory 2 Product 1 $1.50 $0.30 $0.50 $0.20
Product 2 $1.25 $0.80 $1.00 $0.75
Product 3 $1.40 $0.90 $0.95 $1.10

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5

Factory 1 Product 1 $2.75 $3.50 $2.50 $3.00 $2.50
Product 2 $2.50 $3.00 $2.00 $2.75 $2.60
Product 3 $2.90 $3.00 $2.25 $2.80 $2.35
Factory 2 Product 1 $3.00 $3.50 $3.50 $2.50 $2.00
Product 2 $2.25 $2.95 $2.20 $2.50 $2.10
Product 3 $2.45 $2.75 $2.35 $2.85 $2.45

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5

Warehouse 1Product 1 $1.50 $0.80 $0.50 $1.50 $3.00
Product 2 $1.00 $0.90 $1.20 $1.30 $2.10
Product 3 $1.25 $0.70 $1.10 $0.80 $1.60
Warehouse 2Product 1 $1.00 $0.50 $0.50 $1.00 $0.50
Product 2 $1.25 $1.00 $1.00 $0.90 $1.50
Product 3 $1.10 $1.10 $0.90 $1.40 $1.75
Warehouse 3Product 1 $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 $2.00 $0.50
Product 2 $0.90 $1.35 $1.45 $1.80 $1.00
Product 3 $1.25 $1.20 $1.75 $1.70 $0.85
Warehouse 4Product 1 $2.50 $1.50 $0.60 $1.50 $0.50
Product 2 $1.75 $1.30 $0.70 $1.25 $1.10
Product 3 $1.50 $1.10 $1.50 $1.10 $0.90
Number of products shipped
Warehouse 1Warehouse 2Warehouse 3Warehouse 4 Total
Factory 1 Product 1 200 350 300 456 1,306
Product 2 1,654 1,322 1,222 1,100 5,298
Product 3 366 355 312 301 1,334
Factory 2 Product 1 654 657 666 655 2,632
Product 2 987 822 908 912 3,629
Product 3 1,890 5,500 5,678 5,600 18,668
Total Product 1 854 1,007 966 1,111
Product 2 2,641 2,144 2,130 2,012
Product 3 2,256 5,855 5,990 5,901
Capacity Product 1 35,000 20,000 30,000 15,000
Product 2 30,000 25,000 15,000 24,000
Product 3 20,000 20,000 25,000 20,000

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total

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Factory 1 Product 1 20,000 7,000 18,000 21,000 20,000 86,000

Product 2 25,000 7,000 5,000 15,000 31,000 83,000
Product 3 4,326 6,788 8,765 9,608 23,456 52,943
Factory 2 Product 1 27,000 6,754 5,476 4,657 11,230 55,117
Product 2 12,540 6,700 11,000 7,677 9,897 47,814
Product 3 21,309 14,567 17,654 11,765 5,633 70,928

Capacity
Total products shipped out of factoryProduct
1 1 87,306 90,000
Product 2 88,298 100,000
Product 3 54,277 80,000
Total products shipped out of factoryProduct
2 1 57,749 75,000
Product 2 51,443 65,000
Product 3 89,596 90,000

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total

Warehouse 1Product 1 55 122 432 199 46 854 854
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,641
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,256
Warehouse 2Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,007
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,144
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 5,855
Warehouse 3Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 966
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,130
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 5,990
Warehouse 4Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,111
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,012
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 5,901
Total Product 1 47,055 13,876 23,908 25,856 31,276
Product 2 37,540 13,700 16,000 22,677 40,897
Product 3 25,635 21,355 26,419 21,373 29,089
Demands Product 1 30,000 23,000 15,000 32,000 16,000
Product 2 20,000 15,000 22,000 12,000 18,000
Product 3 25,000 22,000 16,000 20,000 25,000

Total cost of shipping ###

Problem
This model builds on model Transport2. Again, a company wants to minimize cost of shipping, but this time
there are 3 products to distribute. How should the company distribute the products?

Solution
The solution to the problem is identical to the one in Transport2. Notice that we have used the 'Insert Name
Define' command to extend the model to a multiproduct problem. This way the variables and constraints are
still the same as in Transport2.

Remarks
Notice that this model delivers the same result as three separate models for the three products. There will be
times however, that there are constraints that apply to more than one product. In that case it would not be
desirable to have three different models and maybe even impossible. For an extension of this model, where the

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number of products made in the factories depends on the demand and distribution rather than being constant,
see the worksheet Prodtran in this workbook.

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Partial Loading (Knapsack Problem)

A fuel truck with 4 compartments needs to supply 3 different types of gas to a customer.
When demand is not filled, the company loses $0.25 per gallon that is not delivered.
How should the truck be loaded to minimize loss?

Truck Specifications
Comp. 1 Comp. 2 Comp. 3 Comp. 4
Size (gallons) 1200 800 1300 700
Loading of Compartments (1=yes, 0=no)
Comp. 1 Comp. 2 Comp. 3 Comp. 4
Gas 1 0 0 0 0
Gas 2 0 0 0 0
Gas 3 0 0 0 0
Total 0 0 0 0
Amount (gallons)
Comp. 1 Comp. 2 Comp. 3 Comp. 4 Total Demand Loss
Gas 1 0 0 0 0 0 1800 $450.00
Gas 2 0 0 0 0 0 1500 $375.00
Gas 3 0 0 0 0 0 1000 $250.00
Total Loss ###
Maximum Amount (gallons)
Comp. 1 Comp. 2 Comp. 3 Comp. 4
Gas 1 0 0 0 0
Gas 2 0 0 0 0
Gas 3 0 0 0 0

Problem
A fuel truck needs to supply 3 different kinds of gas to a customer. When demand is not filled the company
loses $0.25 per gallon that is not delivered. The truck has 4 separate compartments of different size. How
should the truck be loaded to minimize loss?

Solution
1) The variables are the decisions to fill the compartments for each type of gas, and the amounts to be put in
if the compartment is filled. In worksheet Knapsack, these are given the name Gallons_loaded and
Loading_decisions.
2) The logical constraints are
Gallons_loaded >= 0 via the Assume Non-Negative option
Loading_decisions = binary
Since there can only be one kind of gas in any compartment we have
Total_decisions <= 1
The size limitations of the truck give
Gallons_loaded <= Maximum_gallons
We don't want to load more than needed. This gives
Total_gallons <= Demand
3) The objective is to minimize the loss. This is given the name Total_loss.

Remarks
It is often possible to have different objectives in these types of problems. We might, for instance, want to
minimize the wasted space in the truck in this example. Knapsack problems are characterized by a series of
0-1 integer variables with a single capacity constraint. If someone goes camping and his backpack can hold
only a certain amount of weight, what items should the camper bring? He should try to optimize the value

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of the items while not exceeding the weight allowed by the backpack. There is a wide set of problems that
fall into this category.

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Facility Location
A company currently ships its product from 5 plants to 4 warehouses. It is considering closing
one or more plants to reduce cost. What plant(s) should the company close, in order to
minimize transportation and fixed costs?

Transportation Costs (per 1000 products)

Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 Plant 4 Plant 5
Warehouse 1 $4,000 $2,000 $3,000 $2,500 $4,500
Warehouse 2 $2,500 $2,600 $3,400 $3,000 $4,000
Warehouse 3 $1,200 $1,800 $2,600 $4,100 $3,000
Warehouse 4 $2,200 $2,600 $3,100 $3,700 $3,200
Open/close decision variables
Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 Plant 4 Plant 5
Decision 0 0 0 0 0
Number of products to ship (per 1000)
Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3 Plant 4 Plant 5 Total Demand
Warehouse 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 15
Warehouse 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 18
Warehouse 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 14
Warehouse 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 20
Total 0 0 0 0 0
Capacity 0 0 0 0 0
Distr. Cost $ $ $ $ $
Fixed Cost $ $ $ $ $
Total Cost $ $ $ $ $ $

Problem
A company currently ships products from 5 plants to 4 warehouses. The company is considering the option of
closing down one or more plants. This would increase distribution cost but perhaps lower overall cost. What
plants, if any, should the company close?

Solution
1) The variables are the decisions to open or close the plants, and the number of products that should be
shipped from the plants that are open to the warehouses. In worksheet Facility these are given the names
Open_or_close and Products_shipped.
2) The logical constraints are
Products_shipped >= 0 via the Assume Non-Negative option
Open_or_close = binary
The products made can not exceed the capacity of the plants and the number shipped should meet the
demand. This gives
Products_made <= Capacity
Total_shipped >= Demand
3) The objective is to minimize cost. This is given the name Total_cost on the worksheet.

Remarks
It is often possible to increase the capacity of a plant. This could be worked into the model with additional 0-1
or binary integer variables. The Solver would find out if it would be profitable to extend the capacity of a plant.
It could also be interesting to see if it would be profitable to open another warehouse. An example of this can
be found, in somewhat modified form, in the capacity planning model in the Finance Examples workbook.

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Production Transportation Problem (2-stage-transport, multi-commodity)
Minimize the costs of producing 3 different goods, and shipping them from factories to warehouses and
customers, and warehouses to customers, while not exceeding the supply available from each factory or
the capacity of each warehouse, and meeting the demand from each customer.

Cost to make products

Product 1 Product 2 Product 3
Factory 1 $4 $5 $3
Factory 2 $2 $8 $6

Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Cost

Factory 1 0 0 0 $
Factory 2 0 0 0 $
Total Cost $

Cost of shipping ($ per product)

Destinations
Warehouse 1 Warehouse 2Warehouse 3Warehouse 4
Factory 1 Product 1 $0.50 $0.50 $1.00 $0.20
Product 2 $1.00 $0.75 $1.25 $1.25
Product 3 $0.75 $1.25 $1.00 $0.80
Factory 2 Product 1 $1.50 $0.30 $0.50 $0.20
Product 2 $1.25 $0.80 $1.00 $0.75
Product 3 $1.40 $0.90 $0.95 $1.10

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5

Factory 1 Product 1 $2.75 $3.50 $2.50 $3.00 $2.50
Product 2 $2.50 $3.00 $2.00 $2.75 $2.60
Product 3 $2.90 $3.00 $2.25 $2.80 $2.35
Factory 2 Product 1 $3.00 $3.50 $3.50 $2.50 $2.00
Product 2 $2.25 $2.95 $2.20 $2.50 $2.10
Product 3 $2.45 $2.75 $2.35 $2.85 $2.45

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5

Warehouse 1 Product 1 $1.50 $0.80 $0.50 $1.50 $3.00
Product 2 $1.00 $0.90 $1.20 $1.30 $2.10
Product 3 $1.25 $0.70 $1.10 $0.80 $1.60
Warehouse 2 Product 1 $1.00 $0.50 $0.50 $1.00 $0.50
Product 2 $1.25 $1.00 $1.00 $0.90 $1.50
Product 3 $1.10 $1.10 $0.90 $1.40 $1.75
Warehouse 3 Product 1 $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 $2.00 $0.50
Product 2 $0.90 $1.35 $1.45 $1.80 $1.00
Product 3 $1.25 $1.20 $1.75 $1.70 $0.85
Warehouse 4 Product 1 $2.50 $1.50 $0.60 $1.50 $0.50
Product 2 $1.75 $1.30 $0.70 $1.25 $1.10
Product 3 $1.50 $1.10 $1.50 $1.10 $0.90

Number of products shipped

Warehouse 1 Warehouse 2Warehouse 3Warehouse 4 Total
Factory 1 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0
Factory 2 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0

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Total Product 1 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0
Capacity Product 1 35,000 20,000 30,000 15,000
Product 2 30,000 25,000 15,000 24,000
Product 3 20,000 20,000 25,000 20,000

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total

Factory 1 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Factory 2 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0

Capacity
Total products shipped out of factory 1 Product 1 0 0
Product 2 0 0
Product 3 0 0
Total products shipped out of factory 2 Product 1 0 0
Product 2 0 0
Product 3 0 0

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5 Total

Warehouse 1 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Warehouse 2 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Warehouse 3 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Warehouse 4 Product 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total Product 1 0 0 0 0 0
Product 2 0 0 0 0 0
Product 3 0 0 0 0 0
Demands Product 1 30,000 23,000 15,000 32,000 16,000
Product 2 20,000 15,000 22,000 12,000 18,000
Product 3 25,000 22,000 16,000 20,000 25,000

Total cost of shipping $

Total cost of production $
Total Cost $

Problem
A company wants to minimize the cost of shipping three different products from factories to warehouses and customers
and from warehouses to customers. The production of each product at each plant depends on the distribution. How many
products should each factory produce and how should the products be distributed in order to minimize total cost while
meeting demand?

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Solution
Notice that this is an extension of the transportation model as seen in the Transport3 worksheet. This time the factories do
not produce a fixed amount. The amounts produced are now variables.
1) The variables are the number of products to make in the factories, the number of products to ship from factories to
warehouses, factories to customers, and warehouses to customers. In worksheet Prodtran these are given the names
Products_made, Factory_to_warehouse, Factory_to_customer, and Warehouse_to_customer.
2) The logical constraints are all defined via the Assume Non-Negative option:
Products_made >= 0
Factory_to_warehouse >= 0
Factory_to_customer >= 0
Warehouse_to_customer >= 0
The other constraints are
Total_from_factory <= Factory_capacity
Total_to_customer >= Demand
Total_to_warehouse <= Warehouse_capacity
Total_to_warehouse = Total_from_warehouse
3) The objective is to minimize cost. This is defined in the worksheet as Total_cost.

Remarks
This is one of the more complex models in this series of examples. If the number of products, factories and warehouses
becomes large, the number of variables in a model like this one becomes very large. Also bear in mind the degree of
coordination between business units that may be needed in order to implement the optimal solution. For these reasons,
some users prefer to split problems like this one into a set of smaller, simpler models.

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nd customers
tion. How many

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the factories do

d warehouses

these reasons,

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