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Whenever the cost matrix of an assignment problem is not a square matrix, that is, whenever the number of
sources is not equal 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 matrix so as to complete it to form a
square matrix. The dummy rows or columns will contain all costs elements as zeroes. The Hungarian method
may be used to solve the problem.
Example 1: A company has five machines that are used for four jobs. Each job can be assigned to one and only
one machine. The cost of each job on each machine is given in the following Table.
Assignment Problem
Solution: Convert the 4 × 5 matrix into a square matrix by adding a dummy row D5.
Select the least uncovered element, i.e., 1, subtract it from other uncovered elements, add to the elements at
intersection of lines and leave the elements that are covered with single line unchanged as shown in Table.
Example 2: In a plant layout, four different machines M1, M2, M3 and M4 are to be erected in a machine shop.
There are five vacant areas A, B, C, D and E. Because of limited space, Machine M2 cannot be erected at area
C and Machine M4 cannot be erected at area A. The cost of erection of machines is given in the Table.
Assignment Problem
Note: Column-wise reduction is not necessary, as each column has at least one single zero. Now, draw
minimum number of lines to cover all the zeros, see Table.
Now number of lines drawn = Order of matrix, hence optimality is reached. Optimal assignment of machines to
areas are shown in Table.
Optimal Assignment