Final answer:
The transportation problem involves finding the most efficient way to transport goods from a set of origins to a set of destinations, while satisfying supply and demand constraints. In this problem, we have three origins and three destinations. We can construct a data table and use the Excel solver to solve the problem.
Step-by-step explanation:
The transportation problem involves finding the most efficient way to transport goods from a set of origins to a set of destinations, while satisfying supply and demand constraints. In this problem, we have three origins (Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Portland, Oregon) and three destinations (Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Lima, Ohio). The supply at each origin and the demand at each destination are given.
To construct the data table, we can create a matrix with the origins as rows and the destinations as columns. For each combination of origin and destination, we can calculate the distance and cost of transportation. The distances between each pair of cities are given, and the cost of transportation is $2 per unit per mile.
Using this data table, we can then solve the transportation problem using the Excel solver to find the optimal transportation plan that minimizes the total cost while meeting the supply and demand constraints.