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Chapter 3

ASSIGNMENT
PROBLEMS
The objective of an assignment problem is to determine the optimal assignment of given tasks to a set of
workers which they can perform with varying efficiency, in terms of time taken, cost, amount of sales
etc. Thus, if there are n tasks to perform and an equal number of persons who can do them, in varying
times which are known, the algorithm seeks to assign the jobs to persons in such a manner that each
person gets one job and the total time in which all jobs can be done is the minimum. The algorithm works
in varied situations wherein pairings are sought to be made. Assignment problems can be solved by:
(i) Completely enumerating all possibilities and choosing the best one
(ii) Drafting and sqlving the problem as a linear (integer) programming problem
(iii) Drafting and solving the problem as a transportation problem
(iv) Hungarian assignment method (HAM).
The first three methods are inefficient or impractical to use. An operations researcher from Hungary
developed the Hungarian assignment method (HAM). It is the most popular method for solving
Assignment Problems. For a typical minimisation assignment problem that requires assignment of n
jobs to n workers, one to each one, the HAM works as follows:

Step 1: Balance the Problem: If an assignment problem has an equal number of jobs and
workers, it is called a balanced problem, while if the two do not match, the problem is unbalanced. An
unbalanced problem is balanced in the first instance by introducing as many dummy jobs or workers
accordingly whether workers or jobs are more, as will make them equal.

Step 2: Obtain "zeros". The next step is to obtain zeros in every row and column of the given
matrix. For this, subtract the least value in every row from each element of the row. Call the resulting
table Row Minima. For every column of the Row Minima, subtract the minimum value in every column
from each column's value. The resulting table is called Colum Minima. This table would have at least
one zero in every row and column.

Step 3: Allocations: Give allocations to a single zero in every row by marking Cancel any
other zero in the column with a marked zero. Repeat the same process column-wise (do not consider
crossed zeros) . If the number of allocations is equal to n, the solution is optimal. If not, then the table is
revised as follows:
• Tick the rows that do not have an allocation
• Tick columns that have crossed zeros in the ticked rows.
• Tick the rows that have marked zeros in the columns.
• Draw line covering ticked columns and unticked rows.
b
Now consider how many . lines cover all
. zeros. Remember that the nu m b eI. ofli nes covenng
.· all zeros can
never e more than n (sm~e all vertical or all horizontal lines, in any case, can cover all zeros). Select
the least uncovered (by a line) value and
(i) subtract it from every uncovered value in the table, and
(ii) a dd it to every value lying at the intersection of lines.

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Obtain the revised Reduced-Cost Table and again give allocations. If th
. e number
. is
al toless than n, then
. has to be repeate d un1ess the numb er of allocations is equ
repeat the process. This n.

Step 4: Total Cost/Time:

. .
Now, tabulate the assignments mad e an d a dd up the cost elements
of such assignments. It would yield the total cost, which is the minimum.

Multiple Solutions
In making assignments, we may sometimes land in a situation where no row or column left has sin~le
zero and all rows and columns have multiple zeros. In such a case, the zeros are selected arbitrarily,
assignments made, and zeros in the row and column selected in each case be crossed out. This is do~e in
such a way that all assignments are made. The existence of multiple zeros results in multiple optimal
solutions to the problem.

Prohibited Assignments
Suppose a worker cannot perform a particular job or he is not be assigned a particular job. In that case,
such an assignment is called a prohibited assignment. M, which is a very large value, replaces the cost
element for each prohibited assignment. The problem is then solved as usual. The prohibited
assignments will continue to be shown by M, with no changes in them in a row and column reductions.

Maximisation Assignment Problems

Sometimes, an assignment problem calls for assigning people to different areas to give the maximum
benefit. For example, sales expected from different salespeople in various sales zones may be given. The
problem may be assigning each one of them so that the total sales may be maximised. A maximisation
type of problem is first converted to an equivalent minimisation problem by subtracting each value of
the given matrix from a constant value, which is usually the largest given value. The resulting matrix is
termed as Opportunity Loss Matrix and is then solved as any minimisation problem. If a maximisation
problem is unbalanced, it is first balanced by adding dummy worker(s)/job(s) with zero elements. Any
prohibited assignments are shown by -M before converting the problem into minimisation equivalent.

Practical Problems
1. Solve the following Assignment problem by:

(a) Complete Enumeration Method

(b) Hungarian Assignment Method

Time (in Minutes)

Worker Job 1 Job 2 Job 3
A 4 2 7
B 8 5 3
C 4 5 6

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Solve the given assignment problem for an optimal solution using HAM.
Jobs (Time taken in Minutes)
A B C D
1 45 40 51 67
2 57 42 63 55
Workers 48 64
3 49 52
4 41 45 60 55

3. ABC company is engaged in manufacturing 5 brands of packed snacks. It has five manufacturing
setups, each capable of manufacturing any of its braO:ds one at a time. The costs to make a brand on
these setups vary according to the following table:

Setups
Brands S1 S2 Sa S4 Ss
B1 4 6 7 5 11
B2 7 3 6 9 5
Ba 8 5 4 6 9
B4 9 12 7 11 10
Bs 7 5 9 8 11
Find the optimal assignment of products on these setups resulting in minimum cost.

4. A pharmaceutical company is producing a single product and is selling through five agencies situated
in different cities. Suddenly, there is demand for the product in another five cities not having any
company agency. The company is faced with deciding how to assign the existing agencies to dispatch
the product to needy cities to minimise the travelling distance. The distance between the surplus and
deficit cities (in km) is given in the following table:
Deficit Cities
Surplus Cities a b C d e
A 160 130 115 190 200
B 135 120 130 160 175
C 140 110 125 170 185
D 50 50 80 80 110
E 55 35 80 80 105
Determine the optimum assignment schedule.

5. There are five jobs to be assigned to five machines. Costs of completion of the jobs on the respective
machine are as given in the table below:
Machines
Jobs M1 Ma
J1 65 40 90 80 90
J2 60 35 100 85 85
J3 60 38 105 90 95
J~ 70 45 120 90 100
Js 65 40 105 87 90
Employ the Hunga ria n method of opt imal assignment of Jobs to the machimst to minimise the tota l
cost of a ll the jobs. Is the solution unique? If not, work out an alternative solution and calcula te the
tota l cost implied by it.

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6.
A department has five employees with five Jobs
. to be pertiormed_· The time (in hours) each man
will take to perform each job is given m
· th ee tliectiveness matnx·
Jobs Employees
I II Ill IV V
A 10 5 13 15 16
B 3 9 18 13 6
C 10 7 2 2 2
D 7 11 9 7 12
E 7 9 10 4 12
. .
How should the Jobs be allocated, one per employee, so as to numm1ze the t.otal hours?.

7.
Five men are available to do five different jobs. From past records, the time (in hours) that each
man takes to do each job is known and given in the table:

Men Jobs
I II
A III IV
7 9 V
B 3 3
6 1 2
C 6 6
3 4 5
D 9 10
1 5 7
E 2 2
6 6 4
9 4
Find the assignment of men to jobs that will minimise the total time taken. 2

8. A company solicits bids on each of four projects from five contractors. Only one project may be
assigned to any contractor. The bids received (in thousands ofrupees) are given in the accompanying
table. Contactor D feels unable to carry out project 3 and, therefore, submits no bid.

Jobs Contractor
A B C D
1 18 E
25 22
2 26 26 25
29 26
3 28 27 24
31 30
4 26 28 31
27 26
Find the assignment of jobs to contractors that will minimise the total costs. 29

9. The following information is available regarding four different jobs to be performed and about the
clerks capable of performing the jobs:

Jobs (Time taken in hours)

A B
I C D
4 7
II 5 6
Clerks 8 7
III 3 4
IV 5 3
6 6 4 2
Clerk II cannot be assigned to job A and clerk III cannot be assigned to job B. Find out the optimal
assig nment sched ule and the total time taken to perform the jobs. Also, find whether the given
problem has more than one optimal assignment schedule.

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10. . thell modification
In . of a Plant l ayout of a factory, four new machines Mi, M2, Ms and M4, are to be
. . ed m a machine 8 h op. There are five vacant places A, B, C, D and E, available. Because of
msta
. spaces
limited . , machin e M2 cannot be placed at C, and Ms cannot be placed at A. The cost of locatmg
·
machine 1 to place j, in rupees, is shown here. Find the optimal assignment schedule.

D E
A B C
90 91
89 91 95
M1 90 89
M2 92 89 87
94 91
M3 91 88
92 87
M4 94 88
nd
MCS Inc. is a software company with three projects with the departments of health, education,
th ~
11. housing of the Maharashtra Government. Based on the background and experiences of e proJe~t
· · · · ,. · · t The performance score matnx
leaders, they differ m terms of their periormance at various proJeC s.
is given below:
Projects
Education Housing
Workers Health
26 42
A 20 50
24 32
B 44
32 34
C
Help the management by determining the optimal assignment which maximises the total

performance score.

12. Suggest the optimal assignment schedule for the following assignment problem:

Sales (Rs in lakhs)

II III IV
I
70 75 72
A 80
75 80 85
Salesmen B 75
78 82 78
C 78
What will be the total maximum sale?

13. The owner of a small machine shop has four machinists available to assign to jobs for the day. Five
jobs are offered with an expected profit in rupees for each machinist on each job follows :

B C D E
A
78 50 101 82
M1 62
84 61 73 59
M2 71
92 111 71 81
M3 87
64 87 77 80
M4 48
..
Determine the assignment of machinists to Jobs that will result m maximum profit. Which job should
be declined?

sale_s manager wishes to assign four sales territories to four salespersons. The salespersons differ
14.
111 their sales acumen. Consequently, the sales expected to be affected in each territory are different
for each salesperson. The estimates of sales per month for each salesperson in each territory are given
below:

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Sales (Rs in lakhs)

X y z
w 130
120 140 145
A 140
140 155
Salesperson B 150
142 150
C 145 140
8 150 142 145 .
D 14 . . d the total maxnnum
Suggest optimal assignment of the four s alespersons to various territories an
monthly sales.

15. .
A company has four salesmen who are to be assigned to f,our diffierent sales territories.
h The monthly
. th table
. different
increases, estimated for each salesman m . tern·t ones
. ('m lakh rupees) • are s own m e .
below:
Sales Territories
Salesmen I II III IV V
A 75 80 85 70 90
B 91 71 82 75 85
C 78 90 85 80 80
D 65 75 88 85 90
(a) Suggest optimal assignments for the salesmen. Which sales territory will remain unassigned?
What will be the maximum sales increase every month?
(b) If salesman D cannot be assigned to territory Ill for certain reasons, will the optimal assignment
schedule be different? If so, show the new assignment schedule/schedules.

16. A college department chairman has the problem of providing teachers for all courses offered by his
department at the highest possible level of educational quality. He has got three professors and one
·teaching assistant (TA). Four courses must be offered, and after appropriate introspection and
evaluation, he has arrived at the following relative ratings (100 = best rating) regarding the ability
of each instructor to teach each of the four courses, respectively.

Course 1 Course 2 Course 3 Course 4

Prof 1 70 50 70 80
Prof2 30 70 60 80
Prof3 30 40 50 70
TA 40 20 40 50
How should he assign his staff to the courses to maximise educational quality in his department?

17. Welldone Company has taken the third floor of a multistoried building for rent to locate one of their
zonal offices. There are five main rooms in this to be assigned to five managers. Each room has its
advantages and disadvantages. The rooms are of different sizes and shapes. Each of the five
managers was asked to rank their room preferences amongst the rooms 301, 302, 303, 304 and 305.
Their preference was recorded in a table as indicated below:

Manager
A B C D E
302 302 303 302 301
303 304 301 305 302
304 305 304 304 304

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301 305 303
302
Most of the managers d 1·d no t li s t a 11 t he fi ve rooms. Assuming that the numbers can quantify
. their
.
preferences, determine which manager should be assigned to which room.

18 A solicitor's employs typists on hourly piece-rate basis for the daily work. There are 5 typists and the
charges and speed are different. According to an earlier understanding only one job is given to onet
typist and the typist is paid for full hour even when he works for a fraction of an hour. Find the leaS
cost aµocation for the following data · ·

Number of pages No. of pages

Job
Typist Rate/hour (Rs) typed/hour
p 199
5 12 175
A Q
6 14 145
B R
3 8 298
C
10
s
4 178
D 11
T
E 4

19 A firm produces four products. There· are four operators who are capable of producing any _of t~ese
four products. The ti.rm records 8 hours a day and allows 30 minutes for lunch. The processmg time
in minutes and the profit for each of the products are given below

Products
D
I C
Operator A B 6
9
10
15 6
1 6 9
10 15 9
2 15
3
25 10 10
15 9 4
4 6 5 '
Profit/unit (Rs) 8
find the optimal assignment of products to operators.

Revision Problems
201 A company has three plants at locations A, Band C which produce the same product. It has to
supply this to a buyer located at D, E and F. The weekly plant capacities for A, B, and C are 100,
800 and 150 units. At the same time, the buyer requirements are 750, 200 and 500 units
respectively for D, E and F. The unit shipping costs (in Rs) are given here:

Buyer
Plant D E F
8 4 10
A
9 7 9
B
6 5 8
C
.. to supply bu~er requirements is Rs. 4, Rs. 3 and Rs. 3 per unit
~ssume that the penalty for fa1hng
m respect of D, E and F, respectively. Determme the optimal distribution for the company to
minimise the cost of transportation and penalty payable. Use VAM and MODI methods.

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202 A company has four manufacturing plants and five warehouses. Each plant manufactu~s t~e
same product, which is sold at different prices at each warehouse area. The profits are given m
the following table
Warehouses . Supply
Plants E
A B C D
1 6 6 4 8 100
2 6 6 4 10 8 200
3 11 10 7 14 7 120
4 15 12 6 14 9 80
Demand 80 120 150 70 90
It is decided that nothing will be sent from plant 1 to warehouse B. Solve this transportation
problem to maximise profit.

203 Shri Sugar Ltd. Has three factories from which sugar has to be transported to four
distribution centres. With identical costs of production at the three plants, the only variable
costs involved are transportation costs. The monthly demand at the four distribution centres
and their unit transportation costs are given below:

Distribution Centers Monthly

Factory
D E F G Production
A 6 11 7 3 2000
B 5 6 10 2 2500
C 4 5 6 6 3500
Monthly
1600 1800 3100 2500
Demand
(a) Fmd out the optimal ,transportat10n cost.
(b) Is the solution unique? If not, find an alternate solution.

204 Given the following transportation problem:

Market
Warehouse Supply
A B C D
1 M 13 17 14 250
2 16 18 14 M 300
3 21 24 13 10 400
Demand 200 225 275 250
(a) Solve the problem and determme the least-cost transportation schedule.
(b) Is the optimal solution obtained is unique? If not, what is/are the other optimal solution/s.