International Journal of Mathematics Trends and Technology (IJMTT) – Volume 51 Number 4 November 2017

A New Approach to Solve Transportation

Problems with the Max Min Total
Opportunity Cost Method ​Sushma Duraphe​ , Sarla Raigar​ 1​ 2*

1​
​ ​Research Scholar, Department of
Department of Mathematics, Govt. M.V.M. Bhopal, India 2*

Mathematics, Govt. M.V.M. Bhopal, India

ABSTRACT: I​ n this paper, we are trying to find the optimum solution of a transportation problem and is to
minimize the cost. The current new algorithmic approach to solve the transportation problem is based
upon the Total Opportunity Cost (TOC) of a transportation table (TT) and maximum minimum penalty
approach. The most attractive feature of this method is that it requires very simple arithmetical and logical
calculation, which compared to the existing method an optimal solution and illustrated with numerical
example.
KEYWORD​: ​Transportation, Minimization costs, Sources supply, Demand, TOC, ​Current Method​.
1. INTRODUCTION ​A transportation problem has been widely studied in computer science and Operation
Research. It is one of the fundamental problems of network flow problem which is usually use to minimize
the transportation cost for industries with number of destination while satisfying the supply limit and
earliest and most important applications of linear programming problem. It was first studied by F.L.
Hitchcock in 1941[5] , then separately by T.C. Koopmans in 1947, and finally placed in framework of linear
programming and solved by simplex method by G.B. Dantzing in 1951[4]. The Simplex method is not
suitable for the Transportation problem especially for large scale transportation problem due to its special
structure of model in 1954 charnes and cooper [3] was developed Stepping Stone method.
A balanced condition (total demand is equal to total supply) is assumed. Then finding an optimal schedule
of shipment of the commodity with the satisfaction of demands at each destination is the main goal of the
problems. The first stage the (IBFS) was obtained by opting any of the available methods such as North
West Corner, Matrix Minima Method or LCM, and Vogel’s Approximation Method, etc. Then in the next
and last stage MODI method was adopted to get an
ISSN: 2231-5373 ​http://www.ijmttjournal.org ​Page 271 ​optimal solution, it’s a much easier
approach to propose for finding an optimal solution and very easy computations.
In last few year Abdual Quddoos et.al [2] and sudhaker et.al [10] proposed two different method in
2012respectively, for finding an optimal solution. Prof. Reena G. Patel et. al [6,7] and A. Amaravathy et.al
[1] developed the method is very helpful as having less computations and also required the short time of
period for getting the optimal solution.
Besides the covenantal methods many researchers has provide many method a better of a transportation
problem. Some of the important related works the current research has deal with are:.‘Transportation
Problem using Stepping Stone Method and its Application’[8]by Prof. Urvashikumari D. Patel et.al Hence
the another method consider averages of total cost along each row and each column which is totally new
concept.[9] In general we try to minimize total transportation cost for the commodities transporting from
source to destination.
In this paper we introduce Method for solving transportation problem which is very simple, easy to
understand and helpful for decision making and it gives minimum solution of transportation problem. The
method developed here ensures a solution which is very closer to the optimal solution.
2. Algorithm of Current Method​:-
Step 1:- Examine whether the transportation problem is balanced or not. If it is balanced then go to next
step.
Step 2:- Subtract the smallest entry from each of the element of every row of the TT and place them on
the right-top of corresponding element.
International Journal of Mathematics Trends and Technology (IJMTT) – Volume 51 Number 4 November 2017
Step 3:- Apply the same operation on each of the columns and place them on the right-bottom of the
corresponding element.
Step 4:- Adding the opportunity cost in each cell along each row and the opportunity cost in each cell
along each column and putting the summation value in the corresponding cell.
Step 5:- Find the difference between maximum and minimum in each row and each column which is called
as row penalty and as column penalty and write it in the side and bottom.
Step 6:- From that select the maximum value. From the selected row/column we need to allocate the
minimum of supply/demand in the minimum
ISSN: 2231-5373 ​http://www.ijmttjournal.org ​Page 272 element of the row or column. Eliminate
by deleting the columns or rows corresponding to where the supply or demand is satisfied.
Step 7:- If obtained condition in step 6 is contrary, that is if there is tie in maximum value select that value
which has least element. If there is tie in the least element then allocate the least element which has
minimum supply/ demand.
Step 8:- Repeating the step 5 to step 7 until satisfaction of all the supply and demand is met.
Step 9:-​Now total minimum cost is calculated as sum of the product of cost and corresponding allocate
value of supply/demand.
3. Numerical Example ​Example 3.1. ​Illustrate
Table 1 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​D​4 ​Supply S​
​ 1 ​9 8 5 7 12 ​S​2 ​4 6 8 7 14 S​
​ 3 ​5 8 9 5 16 Demand
​ 8 18 13 3

Solution : since Σa​i ​= Σb​j ​= 42 The

​ given transportation problem is balanced; therefore exist a basic
feasible solution to ​Current ​Method problem. ​Step :- 2 and 3 The row differences and column differences
are:
Table 2 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​D​4 ​Supply S​
​ 1 ​4
9
5
38
2
05
0
27
2
12
S​2 ​0
4
0
26
0
48
3
37
2
14
S​3 ​0
5
1
38
2
49
4
05
0
16
Demand 8 18 13 3
Step :- 4 ​The Total Opportunity Cost table is
Table 3 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​D​4 ​Supply S​
​ 1 ​9 5 0 4 12 ​S​2 ​0 2 7 5 14 S​
​ 3 ​1 5 8 0 16 Demand
​ 8 18 13 3
International Journal of Mathematics Trends and Technology (IJMTT) – Volume 51 Number 4 November 2017
Step :- 5 The difference between maximum and minimum in each row and each column
Table 4 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​D​4 ​Supply Row Penalty
S​1
95
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12
04
12 (9) (9) - -
S​2 ​8
0
6
275
14 , 6 (7) (5) (5) (5)
S​3
1
12
5
1
8
3
0
16 , 13 (8) (8) (8) (3)
Demand 8 18 ​12

13 ​1
3
Column
Penalty
(9)
- ​- -
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(8)
(8)
(1)
(1)
(5)
(5)
(5) ​-
Therefore, the allocation in the original TT is
Table 5 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​D​4 ​Supply S​
​ 1 ​9 8
12
57
12
S​2 ​8
4
6
687
14
S​3 ​5
12
8
1
9
3
5
16
Demand 8 18 13 3
The transportation cost is: Z = 12*5 + 8*4 + 6*6 + 12* 8 + 1*9 + 3*5= 248/-
Example 3.1. ​Illustrate
Table 6 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​Supply

S​1 ​3 3 5 9

S​2 ​6 5 4 8

S​3 ​6 10 7 10 Demand
​ 7 12 8

Solution : since Σa​i ​= Σb​j ​= 27 The

​ given transportation problem is balanced; therefore exist a basic
feasible solution to ​Current ​Method problem.
International Journal of Mathematics Trends and Technology (IJMTT) – Volume 51 Number 4 November 2017
Step :- 2 and 3 The row differences and column differences are::
Table 7 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​Supply S​
​ 1 ​0
3
0
ISSN: 2231-5373 ​http://www.ijmttjournal.org ​Page 274
03
0
25
1
9
S​2 ​2
6
3
15
2
04
0
8
S​3 ​0
6
3
4 10
7
17
3
10
Demand 7 12 8
Step :- 4 ​The Total Opportunity Cost table is
Table 8 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​Supply S​
​ 1 ​0 0 3 9 S​
​ 2 ​5 3 0 8 S​
​ 3 ​3 11 4 10 Demand
​ 7 12 8
Step :- 5 The difference between maximum and minimum in each row and each column
Table 9 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​Supply Row Penalty S​
​ 1 ​0
9
03
9 (3) -
S​2 ​5
3
3
5
0
8 , 5 (5) (5) (5)
S​3 ​7
3 11
3
4
10 (8) (8) (1)
Demand 7 12 ​3

8 ​3 Column
​ Penalty (5) (2) (2)

(11) (8) ​-
(4) (4) (4)
Therefore, the allocation in the original TT are
Table 10 D​1 ​D​2 ​D​3 ​Supply S​
​ 1
3
9
35
9
S​2
6
3
5
5
4
8
S​3 ​7
6 10
3
7
10
Demand 7 12 8
The transportation cost is: Z = 9*3 + 3*5+ 5*4 + 7*6 + 3*7 = 125/-
International Journal of Mathematics Trends and Technology (IJMTT) – Volume 51 Number 4
November 2017

Comparison of the numerical results​:- Comparison of the numerical results which are
obtain from the example is shown in the following table

Table 11 ​Method Example 3.1 Example 3.2

Current Method 248 125 North West Corner Rule 320 143 Matrix
Minima Method 248 159 VAM 248 143 MODI- Method 240 125
by the current method is near modi method.
4 CONCLUSION​:- The current method is an
attractive method which is very simple, easy to 5.
understand and gives result exactly or even REFERENCES:-
lesser to VAM method. The solution obtained
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