Transportation and

Assignment Problems
 Practice Example
• Harley’s Sand and Gravel Pit has contracted to provide topsoil
for three residential housing developments. Topsoil supply
from three different “farms” and the demand for topsoil is as
follows. Formulate the LP and solve using Solver.
Demand
Farms Weekly Capacity (Cubic Yards) Project Weekly Demand (Cubic Yards)
Supply Farm A 100 1 50
Farm B 200 2 150
Farm C 200 3 300

• Cost of Shipping One Unit from the Farms to Projects ($)

Farms Project 1 Project 2 Project 3
Farm A 4 2 8
Farm B 5 1 9
Farm C 7 6 3
A Network diagram of a Transportation Problem
 A transportation problem in which some
locations are used as intermediate shipping
points, thereby serving both as origins and as
destinations.

Involve the distribution of goods from

intermediate nodes in addition to multiple
sources and multiple destinations.

Transshipment Problems
 Transshipment Problem
• Suppose the manager of Harley’s Sand and Gravel Pit has decided to
utilize two intermediate transshipment points for temporary storage
of Topsoil. The revised costs are shown below. Rest all remains same.
Find the best solution using LP.
• Cost of Shipping One Unit from the Farms to Warehouse ($)

Farms Whouse 1 Whouse 2

Farm A 1.5 2
Farm B 2.5 2
Farm C 1.5 3

• Cost of Shipping One Unit from the Warehouse to Project ($)

Warehouses Project 1 Project 2 Project 3
Warehouse 1 2 1 1.5
Warehouse 2 2.5 2 3
• A supply chain consists of three plants (A, B, and C), three
distributors (J, K, and L), and three stores (X, Y, and Z). The
relevant supply, demand, and unit shipping cost information are
given in the table at the bottom of this page. Set up the model to
minimize total shipping costs.
The Assignment-type Problems

▪ Involve the matching or pairing of

two sets of items such as
o jobs and machines
o secretaries and reports
o lawyers and cases, and so forth
▪ Have different cost or time
requirements for different pairings
 Example of Assignment Problem
• A manager has prepared a table that shows the cost of
performing each of five jobs by each of five employees (see Table
in next slide).
• According to this table, job 1 will cost Rs.1500 if done by Raman,
Rs.2000 if it is done by Shama, and so on. The manager has
stated that his goal is to develop a set of job assignments that
will minimize the total cost of getting all jobs are done. It is
further required that the jobs be performed simultaneously, thus
requiring one job being assigned to each employee.
Numerical Example for the Assignment Problem
( cost in 00’ rupees)
 Hungarian Method
• Step 1: Reduce the initial matrix by subtracting the smallest element in each row
from every element in that row. Then, using this row-reduced matrix, subtract
the smallest element in each column from every element in that column.

• Step 2: Find the minimum number of straight lines that must be drawn through
the rows and the columns of the current matrix so that all the zeros in the matrix
will be covered. If the minimum number of straight lines is the same as the
number of rows (or equivalently, columns), an optimal assignment with a value
of zero can be made. If the minimum number of lines is less than the number of
rows, go to step 3.

• Step 3: Subtract the value of the smallest unlined element from every unlined
element, and add this same value to every element at the intersection of two
lines. All other elements remain unchanged. Return to step 2, and continue until
the minimum number of lines necessary to cover all the zeros in the matrix is
equal to the number of rows.
 • Locate any row or column
that contains only one zero
• If all have more than one
zero, choose the row or
Hungarian column with the fewest
zeros
Method-
• Draw a square around a
Assigning zero in the chosen row or
Values column, indicating an
assignment, and eliminate
that row and column from
further consideration