SC Consulting, a supply chain consulting firm, must decide on the location of its home offices. Its clients are located primarily in the 5 states listed below. There are four potential sites for hom

SC Consulting, a supply chain consulting firm, must decide on the location of its home offices. Its  

clients are located primarily in the 5 states listed below. There are four potential sites for home  

offices: Los Angeles, Tulsa, Denver, and Seattle. The annual fixed cost of locating an office in Los  

Angeles is $165,000, Tulsa is $131,000, Denver is $140,000, and Seattle is $145,000. The  

expected number of trips to each state and the travel costs from each potential site are shown  

below. Each consultant is expected to take at most 40 trips each year.

If at most 3 consultants are to be assigned to a home office, where should the offices be set up?  

How many consultants should be assigned to each office? What is the annual cost of this  

network? Please generate the conceptual model and excel model to answer these questions.

Travel cost ($)

Los Angeles Tulsa Denver Seattle Number of trips required

Washington 150 250 200 25 40

Oregon 150 250 200 75 35

California 75 200 150 125 100

Idaho 150 200 125 125 25

Nevada 100 200 125 150 40

Tips: The limit number of consultants and the maximal number of the expected trips for each  

consultant determine the capacity of the home offices in each area. When you get the number of  

trips assigned to each office, then divided by 40 and you can get the required number of  

consultants.