This caselet is meant for discussing the concept of Transportation method in Operations Management. The caselet discusses about a furniture manufacturer, Williams & Williams located in the US. Williams &Williams has its plants at two locations and distribution centres at two locations. As the company found that with only two plants it was not meeting the demand (capacity problem), it started scouting location for establishing a new plant. The caselet revolves around the company selecting the new plant location with an aim to minimize the total transportation cost by using Transportation model.

1. WILLIAMS & WILLIAMS: PLANT LOCATION
DILEMMA
This caselet is meant for discussing the concept of Transportation method in Operations
Management.The caselet discusses about a furniture manufacturer,Williams &Williams located
in the US. Williams &Williams has its plants at two locations and distribution centres at two
locations. As the company found that with only two plants it was not meeting the demand
(capacity problem), it started scouting location for establishing a new plant.The caselet revolves
around the company selecting the new plant location with an aim to minimize the total
transportation cost by usingTransportation model.
Pedagogical Objectives
• To understand the basics ofTransportation Models
• To explain different ways of developing initial solution to a Transportation problem –
Northwest-corner and Least Cost Method
• To calculate improvement index using Stepping Stone Method and solve aTransportation
problem
ABSTRACT
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