The general economic meanings and mathematical structure of the dual of a primal mathematical programming model have been discussed for many years. However, within the mathematical programming realm, many interesting formulization variations have developed partly in response to variations in particulars of problems.A number of authors have discussed the economic meaning and mathematical structure of the primal of a linear cost minimizing transportation model. Some authors discussed the economic meaning and mathematical structure of the dual as well as the primal of the transportation model. Several authors discussed cost minimizing transshipment models. Recently, greater interest has been shown in specific economic meanings of the dual of the cost minimizing transshipment model.

This paper discusses plant location models applied to a honey processing-marketing cooperative firm with emphasis on sensitivity of findings to some alternative objectives and specifications. Though the study was nationwide in scope, the southern regions of the United States played a significant role in the analyses.The first objective was to determine the number, size, and location of honey processing plants which would minimize total assembly, processing, and product shipment cost. In pursuit of the first objective, two of several questions receiving consideration were: 1. In comparing an optimizing least-cost result to an actual operating cost result, what is a valid specification of “actual” cost? 2. Is there a simple way of checking on the validity of a minimum cost solution?

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