Locating warehouses. southeastern foods has hired you to analyze their distribution-system design. the company has 11 distribution centers, with monthly volumes as listed below. seven of these sites can support warehouses, in terms of the infrastructure available, and are designated by (w).

the monthly fixed cost for operating one of these warehouses is estimated at $3,600, although there is no capacity limit in their design. southeastern could build warehouses at any of the designated locations, but its criterion is to minimize the total of fixed operating costs and variable shipment costs. the table below shows the cost per carton of shipping from any potential warehouse location to any distribution center.

center volume center volume
atlanta (w) 5,000 memphis (w) 7,800
birmingham (w) 3,000 miami 4,400
columbia (w) 1,400 nashville (w) 6,800
jackson 2,200 new orleans 5,800
jacksonville 8,800 orlando (w) 2,200
louisville (w) 3,000
using the evolutionary solver, find the minimum monthly cost for southeastern foods.

He cheyenne hotel in big sky, montana, has accumulated records of the total electrical costs of the hotel and the number of occupancy-days over the last year. an occupancy-day represents a room rented out for one day. the hotel's business is highly seasonal, with peaks occurring during the ski season and in the summer. month occupancy- days electrical costs january 1,736 $ 4,127 february 1,904 $ 4,207 march 2,356 $ 5,083 april 960 $ 2,857 may 360 $ 1,871 june 744 $ 2,696 july 2,108 $ 4,670 august 2,406 $ 5,148 september 840 $ 2,691 october 124 $ 1,588 november 720 $ 2,454 december 1,364 $ 3,529 required: 1. using the high-low method, estimate the fixed cost of electricity per month and the variable cost of electricity per occupancy-day. (do not round your intermediate calculations. round your variable cost answer to 2 decimal places and fixed cost element answer to nearest whole dollar amount) 2. what other factors other than occupancy-days are likely to affect the variation in electrical costs from month to month? (you may select more than one answer. single click the box with the question mark to produce a check mark for a correct answer and double click the box with the question mark to empty the box for a wrong answer.) seasonal factors like winter or summer. systematic factors like guests, switching off fans and lights. number of days present in a month. fixed salary paid to hotel receptionist. income taxes paid on hotel income.