Assignment Problem

Assignment Problem
• An assignment problem seeks to minimize the total cost
assignment of m workers to m jobs, given that the cost of
worker i performing job j is cij.
• It assumes all workers are assigned and each job is
performed.
• An assignment problem is a special case of a transportation
problem in which all supplies and all demands are equal to
1; hence assignment problems may be solved as linear
programs.
• The network representation of an assignment problem with
three workers and three jobs is shown on the next slide.
 Assignment Problem
• Network Representation
c11
1 1
c12
c13

c21
2 c22 2
c23

c32
c31
3 c33 3

WORKERS JOBS
 Special cases of the assignment problem:
• The Hungarian method solves minimization assignment
problems with m workers and m jobs. Therefore we must
add dummy variables so supply equal demand if we use
this special purpose algorithm. The computer model does
this automatically.
• Special considerations using linear programming can
include:
– number of workers less than the number of jobs — add dummy
workers/ with 0 assignment costs as needed
– worker i cannot do job j — add constraint Xij = 0
– worker i must do job j — add constraint Xij = 1
 Hungarian Method Steps
 
1. Subtract the minimum element in each row.
2. In the revised matrix, subtract the minimum element column wise. ( Now you have a zero in
every row and a column)
3. Assign the zeros where there is a single zero in each row & Cancel out the zero's in that column.
4. Assign the zeros where there is a single zero in each column & Cancel out the zero's in that row.
5. Continue all the assignments are over. If every job is assigned to a specific machine or person,
then that is the optimal assignment. If any of them is not assigned then
a. Draw minimum number of lines to cover all the zeros ( Equal to number of assignments
made in the step 5)
b. In the uncovered elements, find the minimum element and subtract it from all the
uncovered elements. and the this minimum element to the cross points where two lines
intersect.
c. GOTO step 3.
d. Continue till the optimal assignment is made.