Regarding Assignment 1 ....

I've received a few questions regarding the first assignment and thought I should share my comments with the class.

1. The Merton Truck case study illustrates the use of linear programming in support of business decisions. The vernacular may be unfamiliar to those without business experience. In particular, the term 'contribution' refers to difference between selling price and the 'variable cost' necessary to produce an item. It's a measure of how much the production and sale of an additional item contributes to overall profit.  To compute total profit, sum contributions from all products sold then subtract Fixed Costs/Overhead. 
2. The syllabus asks you to do your calculations with a linear programming tool of your choice.  In class I suggested doing this in both Excel and GMPL, which would provide an excellent introduction to those tools.  I meant that only as a suggestion, and apologize if there was any confusion. What's required is a solution using one tool of your choice.
3. I encourage you to submit your work electronically via Concourse.  PDF files work well for me, but use formats that make sense to you.  If you submit multiple files, label one of them "README" so that I know where to start.