Chapter 6. 1.0 TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM The transportation problem is a special class of the linear programming problem.

It deals with the situation in which a commodity is transported from Sources to Destinations. The objective is to determine the amount of commodity to be transported from each source to each destination so that the total transportation cost is minimum. EXAMPLE 1.1 A soft drink manufacturing firm has m plants located in m different cities. The total production is absorbed by n retail shops in n different cities. We want to determine the transportation schedule that minimizes the total cost of transporting soft drinks from various plants to various retail shops. First we will formulate this as a linear programming problem. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION et us consider the m!plant locations "origins# as O1 , O2 , ., Om and the n!retail shops "destination# as D1 , D2 , .., Dn respectively. et ai 0, i= 1,2, .m $ be the amount available at the ith plant Oi . et the amount re%uired at the jth shop Dj be bj 0, j= 1,2,.n. et the cost of transporting one unit of soft drink form ith origin to jth destination be Cij , i= 1,2, .m, j=1,2,.n. If xij 0 be the amount of soft drink to be transported from ith origin to jth destination $ then the problem is to determine xij so as to &inimize z = xij cij
i =+ j =+ m n

'ubject to the constraint and (ij ) $ for all i and j.

x
j =+

ij

= ai $ i = +$,$...m

m xij = b j $ j = +$,$...n. i =+

This l** is called a Transportation Problem.

THEOREM 1.1 A necessary and sufficient condition for the e(istence of a feasible solution to the transportation problem is that
m n

a = b
i =+ i j =+

-emark. The set of constraints

m n x = b and x = a ij j ij i i =+ j =+

-epresents m+n equations in mn non!negative variables. .ach variable (ij appears in e(actly two constraints$ one is associated with the origin and the other is associated with the destination. Note. If we are putting in the matri( from$ the elements of A are either ) or +. THE TRANSPORTATYION TABLE: /+ 1+ 1,
0 00

/, 00 c++ c,+
0..

/n c+n 0. c,n
0.. 2

!pp"# a+ a, am bn

c+, c,,
0..

0.. 0..
0..

1m cm+ Re$!%re&e't

cm, b+

0. b,

0 cmn 0 0.

/efinition. " oop#. In a transportation table$ an ordered set of four or more cells is said to form a loop if 2 "I# Any two adjacent cells in the ordered set lie in the same row or in the same column. "II# Any three or more adjacent cells in the ordered set do not lie in the same row or in the same column. RESULT: A feasible solution to a transportation problem is basic if and only if the corresponding cells in the transportation table do not contain a loop. To find an initial basic feasible solution we apply2 "+# The 3orth!West corner rule ",# 4ogel5s Appro(imation method.

1.1 THE NORTH()EST CORNER RULE 'tep "+#. The first assignment is made in the cell occupying the upper left!hand "3orth West# corner of the transportation table. The ma(imum feasible amount is allocated there$ i.e6 (++ 7 min" a+$ b+ # . 'tep ",#. If b+ 8 a+$ the capacity of origin 1+ is e(hausted but the re%uirement at / + is not satisfied. 'o move downs to the second row$ and make the second allocation2 (,+ 7 min " a, $ b+ 9 (++ # in the cell " ,$+ #. If a+ 8 b+ $ allocate (+, 7 min " a+ ! (++ $ b, # in the cell " +$,# . :ontinue this until all the re%uirements and supplies are satisfied. EXAMPL 1.1.1 /etermine an initial basic feasible solution to the following transportation problem using the 3orth!West corner rule2 /+ 1+ 1, 1; = ? < /, < @ ; +) /; + , = +> /< > A , < = = , ? @ + < ; = ? < +< , < , A + > A*a%"a+%"%t# +< += >

Re$!%re&e't =

So"!t%o' to the a+o*e pro+"e& % 2

3ow all re%uirements have been satisfied and hence an initial basic feasible solution to the transportation problem has been obtained. 'ince the allocated cells do not form a loop$ the feasible solution is non!degenerate. Total transportation cost with this allocation is2

B 7 =C= D <C? D ,C@ D+<C, D +C= D<C

7 +,?.

,O-EL.S APPROXIMATION METHO/ 0,AM 1. 'tep +. For each row of the transportation table$ identify the smallest and the ne(t to! smallest costs. /etermine the difference between them for each row. /isplay them alongside the transportation table by enclosing them in parenthesis against the respective rows. 'imilarly compute the differences for each column. 'tep ,. Identify the row or column with the largest difference among all the rows and columns. If a tie occurs$ use any arbitrary tie breaking choice. et the greatest difference correspond to ith row and the minimum cost be Cij . Allocate a ma(imum feasible amount xij = min ( ai , bj ) in the ( i, j )th cell$ and cross off the ith row or jth column. 'tep ;. -e compute the column and row differences for the reduced transportation table and go to step ,. -epeat the procedure until all the rim re%uirements are satisfied. Re&ar2. 4A& determines an initial basic feasible solution$ which is very close to the optimum solution. PROBLEM 1.1.3 1btain an initial basic feasible solution to the following transportation problem using 4ogels appro(imation method. I A E : / > ; = < ,+ II + ; < !+ ,> III ; > < < +A I4 ; < ; , +A ;< +> +, +@

1.3 MO,IN- TO)AR/S OPTIMALITY 011 /ETERMINE THE NET(E,ALUATIONS 0 U(, METHO/1

<

'ince the net evaluation is zero for all basic cells$ it follows that zij cij = ui +!j cij $ for all basic cells (i, j). 'o we can make use of this relation to find the values of ui and !j . Fsing the relation ui +!j = cij $ for all i and j which (i,j) is a basic cell$ we can obtain the values of ui "s and !j "s. After getting the values of ui "s and !j "s$ we can compute the net!evaluation for each non!basic cell and display them in parenthesis in the respective cells. 031 SELECTION OF THE ELECTIN- ,ARIABLES :hoose the variable x#s to enter the basis for which the net evaluation z#s c#s = max $ zij cij % 0& .

After identifying the entering variable x#s $ form a loop which starts at the non!basic cell (#,s) connecting only basic cells . 'uch a closed path e(ists and is uni%ue for any non! degenerate solution. Allocate a %uantity alternately to the cells of the loop starting + to the entering cell. The value of is the minimum value of allocations in the cells having . 3ow compute the net!evaluation for new transportation table and continue the above process till all the net!evaluations are positive for non!basic cells. 1.4 /E-ENCY IN TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM Transportation with m!origins and n!destinations can have &5'(1 positive basic variables$ otherwise the basic solution degenerates. 'o whenever the number of basic cells is less than m + n-1, the transportation problem is degenerate. To resolve the degeneracy$ the positive variables are augmented by as many zero!valued variables as is necessary to complete m +n 1 basic variables. UNBALANCE/ TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM If

a b
i =+ i j =+

$
j

The transportation problem is known as an unbalanced transportation problem. There are two cases

Ca e011.

>

 a > b
i =+ i j =+

Introduce a dummy destination in the transportation table. The cost of transporting to this destination is all set e%ual to zero. The re%uirement at this destination is assumed to be e%ual to

a b
i =+ i j =+

j.

Ca e 031 .

a < b
i =+ i j =+

Introduce a dummy origin in the transportation table$ the costs associated with are set e%ual to zero. The availability is

b a
j =+ j i =+

1.6 THE ASSI-NMENT PROBLEM 'uppose there are n!jobs for a factory and has n!machines to process the jobs. A job i (i=1,2,n ) when processed by machine j ( j=1,2,n) is assumed to incur a cost c ij .The assignment is to be made in such a way that each job can associate with one and only one machine. /etermine an assignment of jobs to machines so as to minimize the overall cost. 1.6.1 MATHEMATCAL FORMULATION We can define (ij 7 )$ if the ith job not assigned to jth machine. 7 + $ if the ith job is assigned to jth machine. We can assign one job to each machine$
n n

x
i =+

ij

= +$ and xij = +
j =+

The total assignment cost is given by z = cij xij

j =+ i =+ n n

1.6.3 THE ASSI-NMENT AL-ORITHM 'tep "+#. /etermine the effectiveness matri(. 'ubtract the minimum element of each row of the given cost matri( from all of the elements of the row. .(amine if there is at least one zero in each row and in each column. If it is so$ stop here$ otherwise subtract the minimum element of each column from all the elements of the column. The resulting matri( is the starting effectiveness matri(. 'tep ",#. Assign the zeroes2 "a#. .(amine the rows of the current effective matri( successively until a row with e(actly one unmarked zero is found. &ark this zero$ indicating that an assignment will be made there. &ark all other zeroes lying in the column of above encircled zero. The cells marked will not be considered for any future assignment. :ontinue in this manner until all the rows have taken care of. "b#. 'imilarly for columns. 'tep ";#. :heck for 1ptimality. -epeat step , successively till one of the following occurs. "a#. There is no row and no column without assignment. In such a case$ the current assignment is optimal. "b#. There may be some row or column without an assignment. In this case the current solution is not optimal. *roceed to ne(t step. 'tep "<#. /raw minimum number of lines crossing all zeroes as follows. If the number of lines is e%ual to the order of the matri($ then the current solution is optimal$ otherwise it is not optimal. Go to the ne(t step8 'tep ">#. .(amine the elements that do not have a line through them. 'elect the smallest of these elements and subtract the same from all the elements that do not have a line through them$ and add this element to every element that lies in the intersection of the two lines. 'tep "=#. -epeat this until an optimal assignment is reached.

PROBLEM 1.6.1 :onsider the problem of assigning five jobs to five persons. The assignment costs are given as follows2

Hobs *erson A E : / . + ? ) ; < @ , < @ ? ; > ; , > @ + ? < = > , ) @ > + < = ; >

1.6.6.UNBALANCEE/ ASSI-NMENT PROBLEM When the cost matri( of an assignment problem is not a s%uare matri($ i.e6 number of sources is not e%ual to the number of destinations$ the assignment problem is called an unbalanced assignment problem. In such problems$ dummy rows or columns are added in the matri( so as to complete it to form a s%uare matri(.