THE TRANSPORTATION & ASSIGNMENT

PROBLEMS

Reproduced mainly from

“Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

 Transportation
• Special category of LP problem

• Most common application is to determine how to

optimally transport goods (to minimize shipping
costs/time, or to maximize vehicle utilization, etc.)

• May also be applied for production scheduling

• Similarly for assignment problems (how to optimally

assign people to tasks)

• Both types of problems (transportation and assignment)

can be represented as problems involving networks
(next chapter)

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Transportation Terminology

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
The Transportation Problem Model

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Transportation Terminology

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Production Scheduling Example

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
 Water Distribution Example
• Metro Water District is a government agency that takes
water from 3 rivers and supplies it to 4 cities at certain
unit costs

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Streamlined Simplex Method For
Transportation

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

 Streamlined Simplex Method For
Transportation - 2
• Construct an initial BF solution

• Optimality test (further iterations needed or not?)

• If yes (solution not yet optimal):

 Determine entering basic variable for next iteration

 Determine leaving basic variable for next iteration

 Construct new BF solution and objective function (Gaussian

elimination)

• If no more iterations needed: exit loop (optimal solution

found)
Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
 Greatly Streamlined Ways of Obtaining the
Information
• No artificial variables

• The current row 0 can be obtained without using any

other row

• Leaving basic variable can be identified in a simple way

(special structure of the problem makes it easy to see)

• Grand conclusion: Almost entire simplex tableau can

be eliminated

• Only parameters are needed

• Initial BF solution is needed

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Streamlined Simplex Method For
Transportation - 3

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

Initial BF Solution: Northwest Corner Rule

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

Initial BF Solution: Vogel’s Method

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Initial BF Solution: Russel’s Method

Source: Hillier et al., 2012

 Optimality Test

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
 Not optimal as
we have two
negative
values here (-2
and -1)

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

The net result is that cells (2, 5) and (1, 3) become recipient cells, each receiving
its
additional allocationSource:
from“Operations
one ofManagement,”
the donor cells, (1, 5) and (2, 3)
J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
 Find the New BF Solution
The new BF solution is identified simply by adding the
value of the leaving basic variable (before any change)
to the allocation for each recipient cell and subtracting
this same amount from the allocation for each donor cell.

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Summary of Transportation Simplex Method

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
 Assignment

• Special category of transportation (LP) problem

• Most basic application is to determine how to optimally

assign people to tasks (to minimize overall cost)

• May also be applied for assigning machines/plants to

different locations/products, etc.

• Both types of problems (transportation and assignment)

can be represented as problems involving networks
(next chapter)

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

 Assignment
To fit the definition of an assignment problem, these kinds of
applications need to be formulated in a way that satisfies the
following assumptions:

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

 Prototype Example

This cost table contains all the necessary data for solving the
problem Source: Hillier et al., 2012
The Assignment Problem Model

• for i 1, 2, . . . , n and j 1, 2, . . . , n. Thus, each x is a binary variable ij

(it has value 0 or 1).

• In this case, the yes/no decision is:
• Should assignee i perform task j?

The assignment problem model is

Assignee i ; Task j

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

 Assignment Model is special type of
Transportation Model

Integer solutions property

Because si and dj are integers ( 1) now, this property implies that every BF
solution (including an optimal one) is an integer solution for an assignment
problem.

The functional constraints of the assignment problem model prevent any variable
from being greater than 1, and the nonnegativity constraints prevent values
less than 0. Therefore, by deleting the binary restriction to enable us to solve
an assignment problem as a linear programming problem,

The resulting BF solutions obtained automatically will satisfy the binary restriction
anyway.
Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Network Representation of Assignment Model

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

 Solution Procedures for Assignment
Problems
Option 1- General simplex method for smaller problems

Option 2- For large assignment problems, more specialized

solution procedures

Option 3 – Since Assignment is a special type of

transportation, we can apply the transportation simplex
method also

Option 4 – One of the specialized algorithms; Hungarian

Algorithm

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Option 2

Optimal solution (try at home): x13 = 0, x14 = 1, x23 = 1, x31 =

1, x41 = 0, x42 = 1, x43 = 0

Drawback: Degeneracy and wasted iterations, AND it does nothing to

exploit the additional special structure in this special type of
transportation problem
Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar
Example: Assigning Products to Plants

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Formulation of Option 1

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Formulation of Option 2.

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

 A SPECIAL ALGORITHM FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
PROBLEM

Equivalent Cost Tables (Hungarian Algorithm)

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Another Example: Creation of Additional Zero Elements

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar

Continued

Source: “Operations Management,” J. Heizer, B. Render, J. Rajashekhar