Glossary Key Terms

Degeneracy an occurrence in transportation models in which too few squares or

shipping routes are being used, so that tracing a closed path for each unused square
becomes impossible.

Demand (destination) are any points that receive goods.

Dummy destinations artificial destination points created in the transportation method

when the total supply is greater than the total demand; they serve to equalize the total
demand and supply.

Dummy sources artificial shipping source points created in the transportation method
when total demand is greater than total supply to affect a supply equal to the excess of
demand over supply.

Improvement Index (min cost) for every item shipped the transportation cost will
increased by number of unit (positive value) or each negative index represents the
amount by which total transportation costs could be decreased if one unit was shipped
by the source destination combination.

Initial solution initial feasible solution to the problem in finding minimum cost or
maximum profit.

Lowest Cost Method (LCM) Intuitive method a cost-based approach to finding an initial
solution to a transportation problem.

Occupied cell (used cell) cell containing number of unit shipped.

Optimal Solution the most optimal value of cost or profit that can be obtains after initial
solution.

Stepping-stone method an iterative technique for moving from an initial feasible

solution to an optimal solution in the transportation method.

Supplier (sources) can be factories, warehouses, where origin points from which goods
are shipped.

Transportation modeling an iterative procedure for solving problems that involves

minimizing the cost of shipping products from a series of sources to a series of
destinations.

Unoccupied cell (unused cell) cell did not containing number of unit shipped.