Part C:  Cost of procuring boilers

This part of the coursework requires you to use linear programming techniques to determine the best way to minimise the cost of supplying boilers to Lamberts Heating

As well as manufacturing radiators (as mentioned in Part A), Lamberts Heating is also reviewing the way it procures boilers to enable the installation of domestic heating systems.

The purchasing department has identified three possible suppliers of boilers; Apex, Brunswich and Centrale. It has also identified five kinds of domestic boiler that it wants to purchase so it can supply and fit these boilers to a variety of sizes of homes.

The five boilers are known and coded by Italian numbers as most are manufactured in Italy ; Uno (1), Duo (2), Tre (3), Quattro (4) and Cinque (5).

The table below gives the cost of each boiler (in £s) from each supplier. The final row of the table specifies the minimum requirement of each type of boiler per year. Please note that not all boilers are available from each supplier.

There are certain limitations that have to be taken into account;

·       

Apex can supply no more than 1,000 of the Tre boiler each year.

·       

Brunswich can supply no more than 800 of the Duo boiler each year.

·       

Centrale can supply no more than 1,800 Uno boilers each year.

Lamberts Heating wants to meet its requirement for the number of boilers needed each year at the minimum cost.

Task

You are expected to use MS Excel software for this task.