IIM TRICHY

Quantitative MethodsII
Transportation and
Assignment
GROUP 10
Aniket Phadnis 1501068
Anubhav Dutta 1501070
Dhvanil Zaveri 1501076
Rushin P. 1501098
Sandeep Vayyasi 1501101
Prem Kishor 1401095

TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM:
Transportation model deals with problems concerning as to what happens to
the effectiveness function when we associate each of a number of origins
(sources) with each of a possibly different number of destinations (jobs). The
total movement from each origin and the total movement to each
destination is given and it is desired to find how the association be made
subject to the limitation on total. In such problems, sources can be divided
among the jobs or jobs may be done with a combination of sources. The
distinct feature of transportation problems is that sources and jobs must
expressed in terms of only one kind of unit.
Suppose that there are m sources and n destinations. Let a i be the number of
supply units available at source i(i=1,2,3,m) and let b j be the number of
demand units required at destination j(j=1,2,3,n). Let cij represent the unit
transportation cost for transporting the units from sources i to destination j.
The objective is to determine the number of units to be transported from
source i to destination j so that the total transportation cost is minimum. In
addition, the supply limits at the source and the demand requirements at the
destinations must be satisfied exactly.
If xij (xij>0) is the number of units shipped from source i to destination j, then
the equivalent linear programming model will be
Find xij (i=1,2,3,m; j=1,2,3,n) in order to
Minimize
m

i=1

i=1

Z = . c ij x ij
Subject

to

x ij=ai

i =1,2,3,m.

j=1

And
m

x ij=b j

j =1,2,3,n.

i=1

Where

xij 0.

The two set of constraints will be consistent i.e., the system will be in
balance if
m

i=1

j=1

a i= b j
Note that a transportation problem will have a feasible solution only if the
above restriction is satisfied. Thus it is necessary as well as sufficient
condition for a transportation problem to have a feasible solution. Problems
that satisfy this condition are called balanced transportation problems.

Question 1:
Arnoff enterprises manufactures the central processing units for line of
personal computers. The CPUs are manufactured in seattle, Columbus and
New York and shipped to Warehouses in Pittsburg, Mobile, Denver, Los
Angeles and Washington for further distribution.The following table shows
the no. of CPUs available at each plant. The no. CPUs required by each
warehouse and the shipping costs. Determine the amount to be shipped to
each warehouse from each plant to minimize the total cost.

Solution :
Let the amount shipped be Sij
Where i= plant (1,2,3) and j= warehouse (1,2,3,4,5)

i.e S11 would be amount shipped from Seattle plant to the Pittsburg
warehouse
Objectiv
Total Cost=
e
10*S11+20*S12+5*S13+9*S14+10*S15+2*S21+10*S22+8*S2
Function: 3+30*S24+6*S25+1*S31+20*S32+7*S33+10*S34+4*S35
Constraint
s

S11+S12+S13+S14+S15=9000
S21+S22+S23+S24+S25=4000
S31+S32+S33+S34+S35=8000
S11+S21+S31=3000
S12+S22+S32=5000
S13+S23+S33=4000
S14+S24+S34=6000
S15+S25+S35=3000

Warehouse
Plant
Seattl
e
Colo
mbus
New
York
Dema
nd

Mobile

Denve
r

Los
Angele
s

Wahinto
n

Supply

10

20

10

9000

10

30

4000

1
300
0

20

10

8000

5000

4000

6000

3000

Pitts
burg

Next, with all the variables well defined and in place, we employ the Excel
solver to arrive at the solution. The Target cell for value of objective
function is selected along with the Minimization option. Then, the
Transportation matrix is selected for the category "By changing values".
And lastly, all the binding constraints are defined.
With all these details done, we can click on solve to obtain the actual
solution.

Plant
Seattl
e
Colo
mbus
New
York

Pitts
burg

Mobile

Denve
r

Los
Angele
s

4000

5000

9000

0
300
0

4000

4000

1000

1000

3000

8000

5000

4000

6000

3000

Qty.R
eceiv
ed

300
0

Wahinton

Qty.Supplie
d

Hence the least cost of

shipping is $150000

Question 2:
A company imports goods at three ports. For the next planning period shipments of one product
are to be made to customers in four cities. It is not possible to ship the product from port 2 to
city 4. The supplies at each port, customer demands and shipping costs per unit from each port
to each customer are given in Table 12. The company is committed to providing a certain
minimum quantity to the customers as given the table. The maximum requested row indicates
the quantity that can be shipped to a customer at the maximum. Management wants to make
the allocation at a minimum total cost.

Port 1
Port 2
Port 3

Table 12
Shipping Costs per unit shipped
City 1
City 2
City 3
City 4 Supply
13
19
14
25
50
18
21
15
16
60
15
18
17
50

Minimum
quantity
needed

30

70

10

Maximu
m
needed

50

70

30

Solution
Total Supply = (50 + 60 + 50) = 160
Total Demand (Minimum) = (30 + 70 + 0 + 10) = 110
So we can observe that it is not a balanced transportation problem. Also there are two levels of
optimisation required: 1) Optimised distribution of the minimum required demand 2) the
remaining extra supply.
Step 1
We divide the cities into two: 1) City 1 (Required) 2) City 1 (Extra)
The first part caters to the minimum demand required while the second part caters to the left
over demand i.e. maximum - minimum demand.
As we can see the maximum quantity demanded for City 4 is i.e. infinity, so we will assume a
value of lets say 60 to replace it to solve the problem.
Now total demand (maximum) = (50 + 70 + 30 + 60) = 210
Step 2
To cater to the extra demand we assume a new Dummy port for the sake of balancing the
problem and creating our model. So the quantity to be supplied from Dummy would be 50. In
essence if any quantity is supplied from Dummy to a city then that quantity is not taken as
transported.
Step 3
As we do not any supply from Dummy to transported to the Required cities, so we assign a
cost to it lets say 2000. A very low cost for transportation from Dummy to Extra cities as we do
not care where the supply comes from therefore we assign 0 cost.
The model therefore built in excel is:

Step 4
We make the variable cells for coming to the optimized solutions:

The coloured cells represent the actual amounts of quantity to be transported from a particular
port to a city. The QTY. RECEIVED column represents the total quantity received by each city
and it must be equal to the DEMAND row. The QTY. SUPPLIED column represents the total
quantity supplied by each port and it must be equal to SUPPLY column.
Step 5
Run the excel solver wherein we try to minimize the total cost which the sum product of unit
costs and actual quantity transported. The two conditions are mentioned in the previous step.
Also the orange cells are the changing values. Final result:

So the optimal solution given by solver gives a minimum cost of 2070.

Assignment Problem
The concept:

A variety of decision-making techniques requires an assignment problem.

The typical examples are assigning jobs to machines, people to projects,
clients, agents to tasks, sales executives to sales territories, contract to
bidders etc. The special feature of an assignment problem is that only one
source is assigned to one destination. We always look for an assignment that
optimizes an objective such as minimizes cost, maximize profit, minimize
time etc.

Question 1
The quantitative research methods department head at a major Midwestern
university will be scheduling faculty to teach courses during the coming
autumn term. Four courses need to be covered. Four courses are at UG, MBA,
MS and PHD levels. Four professors will be assigned to the courses, with each
professor receiving one of the courses. Student evaluations of professors are
available from previous terms. Based on a rating scale of 4(excellent), 3(very
good), 2(average), 1 (fair) and 0(poor) the average student evaluations for
each professors are shown. Professor D does not have a Ph.D. and cannot be
assigned to teach a Ph.D. level course. If the department head makes
teaching assignment based on maximizing the student evaluation ratings
over all four courses, what staffing assignments should be made?
UG
A
B
C
D

MBA
2.8
3.2
3.3
3.2

MS
2.2
3
3.2
2.8

Ph.D.
3.3
3.6
3.5
2.5

3
3.6
3.5
0

Solution
Let A1, A2, A3, A4 represent professor A assigned to UG,MBA,MS and Ph.D
respectively
B1, B2, B3, B4 represent professor B assigned to UG,MBA,MS and Ph.D
respectively

C1, C2, C3, C4 represent professor C assigned to UG,MBA,MS and Ph.D

respectively
D1,D2, D3 represent professor D assigned to UG,MBA and MS respectively
Objective funtion: Max Z = 2.8 A1 + 2.2 A2 + 3.3 A3 + 3 A4 + 3.2B1 + 3B2
+ 3.6B3 + 3.6B4 + 3.3C1 + 3.2C2 + 3.5C3 + 3.5C4 + 3.2D1 + 2.8D2 +
2.5D3
Subject
A1 + A2
A1 + A2
A1 + A2
A1 + A2
A1 + A2
A1 + A2
A1 + A2
A1 + A2

to :
+ A3
+ A3
+ A3
+ A3
+ A3
+ A3
+ A3
+ A3

+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

A4
A4
A4
A4
A4
A4
A4
A4

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Non negativity condition: All variables 0

Optimal
Solution
A to MS course
B to Ph.D
course
C to MBA
course
D to UG course

Ratin
g
3.3

Maximum Total Rating =

13.3

3.6
3.2
3.2

Next, with all the variables well defined and in place, we employ the Excel
solver to arrive at the solution. The Target cell for value of objective function
is selected along with the Maximization option. Then, the Assignment matrix
is selected for the category "By changing values". And lastly, all the binding
constraints are defined.
With all these details done, we can click on solve to obtain the actual
solution.

UG
A
B

2.8
3.2

C
D

3.3
3.2

UG
A
B
C
D

MBA
MS
Ph.D.
2.2
3.3
3
3
3.6
3.6
3.2
2.8

MBA
0
0
0
1
1

3.5
2.5

MS
0
0
1
0
1

Max Total
Rating
13.3

3.5
0

Ph.D.
1
0
0
0
1

0
1
0
0
1

1
1
1
1

Question 2
Solve the following unbalanced assignment problem of minimizing total time
for doing all the jobs.
Time taken by each operator to
complete each job is given by :Jobs
Operato
r
1
2
3
4
1
6
2
5
2
2
2
5
8
7
3
7
8
6
9
4
6
2
3
4
5
9
3
8
9
6
4
7
4
6

5
6
7
8
5
7
8

Solution
Let us define the variables first
Let : Xij = assignment variable, where, i = operator number ; j = job number.
Now, we shall define X as a boolean variable, where:0 => Job 'j' has not been assigned to the operator 'i'
1 => Job 'j' has been assigned to the operator 'i'
Let : Cij = assignment variable, where, i = operator number ; j = job number.
Now, we shall take values of C from the table given, depending on the
operator and job
Let us now define the objective function for the problem.
Z = Cij * Xij
where Objective is to Minimize Z
Now, this is an imbalanced problem where number of Operators exceeds the
number of Jobs to be completed. This means that one of the operators will
not be assigned a Job and shall be free. Thus, to account for this operator, we
need to introduce a dummy job, number 6 which needs to be assigned to the
extra operator.

Thus, the extra job has been incorporated into the Time Taken matrix to
obtain the Revised Time Matrix.
Also, the various constraints are defined in order to ensure that each
operator is assigned only 1 job and each job is assigned only once.

Next, with all the variables well defined and in place, we employ the Excel
solver to arrive at the solution. The Target cell for value of objective function
is selected along with the Minimization option. Then, the Assignment matrix
is selected for the category "By changing values". And lastly, all the binding
constraints are defined, as shown above.
With all these details done, we can click on solve to obtain the actual
solution.

Thus, in the actual solution, it is clear that the minimum total time take to
complete the 5 given jobs is 16 units. We can clearly see which operator has
been assigned which job.
It can be observed that the following operator and job pairs have been
assigned.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Operator
Operator
Operator
Operator
Operator
6. Operator

1
2
3
4
5
6

Job 4
Job 1
No job assigned
Job 5
Job 2
Job 3