An Oil Company Has Oil Fields in San Diego and Los

question 91

Essay

An oil company has oil fields in San Diego and Los Angeles. The San Diego field can produce up to 500,000 barrels per day, and the Los Angeles field can produce up to 400,000 barrels per day. Oil is sent from the fields to a refinery, either in Dallas or in Houston. Assume that each refinery has unlimited capacity. To refine 100,000 barrels costs $725 at Dallas and $950 at Houston. Refined oil is shipped to customers in Chicago and New York. Chicago customers require 400,000 barrels per day, and New York customers require 300,000 barrels per day. The costs of shipping 100,000 barrels of oil (refined or unrefined) between cities are shown in the table below:
-(A) Determine how to minimize the total cost of meeting all demands.
(B) If each refinery had a capacity of 380,000 barrels per day, how would you modify the model in (A)?

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Definitions:

Weighted Average Method

A cost accounting method that averages all costs of inventory available for sale during the period and assigns the average cost to both ending inventory and cost of goods sold.

Equivalent Units

A metric used in cost accounting to express the amount of work done on incomplete units of production in terms of fully completed units.

Painting Department

A specialized division within a manufacturing facility responsible for the application of paint to products.

Weighted-Average Method

An accounting technique to assign costs to inventory and cost of goods sold, based on the weighted average of the costs of similar goods.