EXERCISE – PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS ON ASSIGNMENT

1. A departmental head has 4 subordinates and 4 tasks to be performed. The subordinates differ
in efficiency and the tasks differ in their intrinsic difficulty. His estimates, of the the time
each man would take to perform eac`h task, is given in the matrix below. How would the
tasks be allocated, one to a man, so as to minimize the total man-hours?

TASKS E F G H
A 18 26 17 11
B 13 28 14 26
C 38 19 18 15
D 19 26 24 10

Answer:

The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: AG; BE; CF; DH

Total cost: = 17 + 13 + 19 + 10 = 59

2. A company wishes to assign 3 jobs to 3 machines such a way that each job is assigned to
some machine and no machine works on more than one job. The cost of assigning job i to
machine j is given by the matrix below (ijth entry). Find the minimum cost of making the
assignments.
 8 7 6
Cost matrix: 5 7 8
6 8 7

Answer:

The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: AE; BD; CF

Total cost: = 7+5+7+ = 19

3. A departmental head has 4 tasks to be performed and 3 subordinates, the subordinates differ
in efficiency. The estimates of the time, each subordinate would take to perform, is given
below in the matrix. How should he allocate the tasks one to each man, so as to minimize the
total man-hours?

TASKS 1 2 3
I 18 26 17
II 13 28 14
III 38 19 18
IV 19 26 24

Answer:

The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: I1; II3; III2
Total cost: = 9+6+20 = 35

4. Four professors are each capable of teaching any one of 4 different courses. Class preparation
time in hours for different topics varies from professor to professor and is given in the
following table. Each professor is assigned to only one course. Determine an assignment
schedule so as to minimize the total course preparation time for all courses.

Professor Linear Queuing Dynamic Regression

Programming Theory Programming Analysis
A 2 10 9 7
B 15 4 14 8
C 13 14 16 11
D 4 15 13 9

Answer:

The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: ADP; BQT; CRA; DLP

Total cost: =9+4+11+4 = 28
5. An automobile dealer wishes to put 4 repairmen to 4 different jobs. The repairmen have
somewhat different kinds of skills and they exhibit different levels of efficiency from one job
to another. The dealer has estimated the number of man-hours that would be required for
each job-man combination. This is given in the matrix form in the following table. Find the
optimum assignment that will result in minimum man-hours needed.

Men Job
A B C D
1 5 3 2 8
2 7 9 2 6
3 6 4 5 7
4 5 7 7 8

Answer:

The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: 1B; 2C; 3D; 4A

Total cost: = 3+2+7+5 = 17

6. Solve the following assignment problem.

W X Y Z
A 8 7 9 10
B 7 9 9 8
C 10 8 7 11
D 10 6 8 7

Answer:
The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: AX; BW; CY; DZ

Total cost: = 7+7+7+7 = 28

7. Solve the following assignment problem.

(a)
A B C D
I 1 4 6 3
II 9 7 10 9
III 4 5 11 7
IV 8 7 8 5

Answer:

The allocations are decided as:

Optimal solution: IA; IIC; IIIB; IVD

Total cost: = 1+10+5+5 = 21

(b)
8.