A complete BU 407 Unit 6 transportation model record: three composite plants balanced against four regions, solved to a shipping plan, with the empty lanes explained. Searches like "bu 407 unit 6 assignment example", "bu407 unit 6 sample" and "bu 407 unit 6 example" land here.
What a finished BU 407 Unit 6 transportation model record looks like
The finished record is mostly grids, with prose in the gaps between them. Supply by plant and demand by region open it, each with its unit of measure, and a line stating whether the totals match. Where they do not, a dummy row or column appears, costed at zero and labeled as fictitious so nobody reads it as a real destination. The unit cost tableau follows, one cell per lane. The solution grid comes next with the quantity shipped on each lane, empty cells left visibly empty, and the total cost computed underneath from the quantities and costs together rather than quoted from the solver alone. A short passage treats the unused lanes, and the closing translates the grid into instructions a dispatcher could read.
How a BU 407 Unit 6 example is structured
The balance check comes before the tableau, since an unbalanced problem solved without a dummy quietly satisfies less demand than the case requires and every figure after it is wrong. The dummy is priced at zero and named, because a dummy given a real cost drags the solution toward or away from it for no reason in the world. Costs and quantities live in separate grids rather than one crowded table, which keeps the reader from confusing a rate with a volume. Total cost is recomputed by hand from both grids as a check on the solver. Unused lanes are discussed after the solution rather than before, so the discussion can point at actual zeros. Alternate optima, where the model has them, are stated in the closing instead of being presented as a single answer.
Totals compared before anything is solved
Supply and demand are added and matched at the top, because an unbalanced problem run without a dummy produces figures that satisfy the wrong requirement.
The dummy costed at zero and labeled
Fictitious supply or demand carries no cost and is marked as fictitious, so a reader never mistakes it for a plant or a region.
Costs and shipments in separate grids
One table holds rates and another holds quantities, which prevents the common misreading of a per unit cost as a volume shipped.
Total cost recomputed by hand
The final figure is rebuilt from the two grids rather than copied from the solver, since that arithmetic is what catches a misaligned range.
Empty lanes given a reason
Routes carrying nothing get a short passage naming how far their unit cost would have to fall before the plan would use them.
The grid turned into instructions
A closing passage states what each plant ships where, in the units a dispatcher on the composite network would actually work from.
Where marks go in BU 407 Unit 6
Records lose marks on the balance step and on the last translation. A tableau solved while supply exceeds demand, with no dummy destination, produces a plan that leaves stock unaccounted for and a total cost that cannot be checked. A dummy priced as though shipping to it were real distorts every lane. Total cost quoted from the solver with no supporting arithmetic gives a marker nothing to verify. Solutions left as a grid, never written as who ships what to whom, drop the interpretation the unit asks for. Degenerate solutions presented as unique overstate the result. Lanes at zero passed over in silence waste the most interesting part of the output. Freight rates and plant volumes taken from an employer cannot be used here.
Get a BU 407 Unit 6 example written to your instructions
Give us the Unit 6 instructions from the BU 407 classroom, the rubric, and the supply, demand and cost figures your assignment sets. We write a custom example that checks the balance first, labels any dummy, keeps rates apart from quantities and turns the final grid into shipping instructions. First custom sample free, returned in 24 to 48 hours.
BU 407 Unit 6 questions, answered
What do I do when supply and demand do not match?
Add a dummy row or column for the difference and give every cell in it a zero cost. Excess supply needs a dummy destination that absorbs it, excess demand needs a dummy source that is never actually shipped. Label the addition and say what it represents, since an unlabeled dummy looks like an invented plant and reads as an error to a marker.
Is an assignment problem the same model?
It is a special case, with supply and demand of one at every point, so the same tableau and the same logic apply. What changes is the interpretation: the answer is a pairing of people or machines to work rather than a set of shipment volumes. If your unit covers both, keep the two write-ups distinct in their closing sections.
Can I solve it with a spreadsheet instead of by hand?
Follow the instructions, since sections differ on whether a manual initial solution and optimality check are required. Where either method is allowed, use the spreadsheet and show the layout, then verify the total cost by hand from the grids. That check costs a minute and catches the range errors that make a confident answer wrong.