Comfy Mattresses, Inc., is opening a new plant in Orlando, Florida. Ron Lane, distribution manager, has been asked to find the lowest cost outbound logistics system. Given an annual sales volume of 24,000 mattresses, determine the costs associated with each option below.

a. Build a private warehouse near the plant for $300,000. The variable cost, including warehouse maintenance and labor, is estimated at $5 per unit. Contract carrier transportation costs $12.50 per unit on average. No external transportation services are necessary for shipment of mattresses from the plant to the warehouse in this scenario. The fixed warehouse investment can be depreciated evenly over 10 years.

b. Rent space in a public warehouse 10 miles from the plant. The public warehouse requires no fixed investment but has variable costs of $8 per unit. Outbound contract carrier transportation would cost $12.50 per unit on average. The carrier at charges $5 per unit to deliver the mattresses to the warehouse from the plant.

c. Contract the warehousing and transportation services to the Freeflow Logistic Company, an integrated logistics firm with a warehouse location 25 miles from the plan. Freeflow requires a fixed investment of $150,000 and charges $20 per unit for all services originating at the plant. The fixed investment covers a 10-year agreement with Freeflow.

d. Name a few advantages aside from cost that the low-cost alternative above may have over the other alternatives.