Transportation and

Assignment Problems
.
 Transportation problem – LP formulations
 Solution Methods
 Economic Interpretation of TP and shadow
prices
 Assignment Problem
 Hungarian Algorithm
 Duality and Managerial Implications
 Stable Marriage problem
Case: Exchange students
 Transportation problem
Sacramento Salt Lake Rapid City Albuquerque
City

Bellingham 464 513 654 867 75

Eugene 352 416 690 791 125

Albert Lea 995 682 388 685 100

80 65 70 85
300
 Minimize

The quantity of sets received by a retailer should meet the demand. This is given by

X
i 1
ij  bj
The quantity of sets supplied by a warehouse should not exceed the availability.
This is given by

X
j 1
ij  ai

Transportation is an LP. It is usually not solved as LP?

 Balanced Transportation Problem

Minimize
Not solved as LP (Simplex) by hand
• Use hand calculations that give good starting
solutions
• These are optimized quickly
• If we use spreadsheet we can solve as LP 

• Easy, good non optimal solutions

• Northwest corner rule
• Minimum cost method
• Penalty cost method
Northwest corner rule
464 513 654 867
75
75
352 416 690 791
125
5 65 55
995 682 388 685
100
15 85
80 65 70 85

6 allocations; Cost = 165595

Minimum Cost Method
464 513 654 867

20 75
55
352 416 690 791
125
80 45
995 682 388 685
100
70 30
80 65 70 85

6 allocations; Cost = 152535

Penalty Cost Method
464 513 654 867

20 75
55
352 416 690 791
125
80 45
995 682 388 685
100
70 30
80 65 70 85

6 allocations; Cost = 152535

Optimum solution
464 513 654 867

20 75
55
352 416 690 791
125
80 45
995 682 388 685
100
70 30
80 65 70 85

6 allocations; Cost = 152535

 Metro water district
Berdoo Los Devils San Go Hollyglass

Colombo 16 13 22 17 50
River
Sacron 14 13 19 15 60
River
Calorie 19 20 23 -- 50
River
30 - 50 70 0-30 0 to any
 Metro water district
B1 B2 LD SG1 HG
CR 16 16 13 22 17 50
SR 14 14 13 19 15 60

CR 19 19 20 23 M 50
Dummy M 0 M 0 0 50

30 20 70 30 60
Northwest Corner
B1 B2 LD SG1 HG
CR 16 16 13 22 17 50
30 20
SR 14 14 13 19 15 60
60
CR 19 19 20 23 M 50
10 30 10
Dummy M 0 M 0 0 50
50
30 20 70 30 60

6 allocations; Cost = 2470 + 10M

Minimum cost method
B1 B2 LD SG1 HG
CR 16 16 13 22 17 50
50
SR 14 14 13 19 15 60
30 20 10
CR 19 19 20 23 M 50
50
Dummy M 0 M 0 0 50
20 30
30 20 70 30 60

7 allocations; Cost = 1480 + 50M

Penalty cost method
B1 B2 LD SG1 HG
CR 16 16 13 22 17 50
50
SR 14 14 13 19 15 60
20 40
CR 19 19 20 23 M 50
30 20
Dummy M 0 M 0 0 50
30 20
30 20 70 30 60

7 allocations; Cost = 2460

Optimum solution
B1 B2 LD SG1 HG
CR 16 16 13 22 17 50
50
SR 14 14 13 19 15 60
20 40
CR 19 19 20 23 M 50
30 20
Dummy M 0 M 0 0 50
30 20
30 20 70 30 60

7 allocations; Cost = 2460

 LP formulation

Minimize

The supply constraints are equations because we want all the 160 to be
transported. If we have inequalities in the supply constraints, demand 3
and 4 will get zero allocation. D2 alone gets 70 while D1 will get 30.
Example

6 4 6 40
5 5 9 30
3 5 6 50
45 35 40
 Assignment Problem
Let us consider an example where 4 jobs have to be assigned to four persons. The Cost of
assigning job j to resource i is given in following Table

1 2 3 4
J1 5 9 3 6
J2 8 7 8 2
J3 6 10 12 7
J4 3 10 8 6
• A feasible solution to the assignment problem is x11 = x22 = x33 = x44 = 1 where the first
person gets job 1 and so on.

• The cost of the assignments is 5 + 7 + 12 + 6 = 30.

 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
J1 5 9 3 6 J1 2 6 0 3
J2 8 7 8 2 J2 6 5 6 0
J3 6 10 12 7 J3 0 4 6 1
J4 3 10 8 6 J4 0 7 5 3

1 2 3 4
J1 2 2 0 3
J2 6 1 6 0
J3 0 0 6 1
J4 0 3 5 3
 Assignment Problem

Location 1 2 3 4
Machine

1 13 16 12 11
2 15 -- 13 20
3 5 7 10 6
LP/IP Formulation

= 1 if machine i is assigned to location j; = 0 otherwise

We have equal number of rows

and columns. Otherwise we create
dummy rows or columns to make
them equal
 Assignment Problem
13 16 12 11 2 5 1 0
15 M 13 20 2 M 0 7
5 7 10 6 0 2 5 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Minimum cost = 29; Column 2 not assigned

 Physical meaning
Base 4 7 6 8 Subtract 1 so
8 10 6 12 that P4 has at
Person 1 8 10 6 12
4 7 6 9 least one
2 4 7 6 9 minimum
5 7 10 8
3 5 7 10 8
8 10 7 11
4 7 9 X6 10

Person 4 has to reduce all the costs by 2 to be able to quote for one new job. This reduces the base
price for job 3 to 4 which means that Person 1 has to reduce all the costs by 2 to be able to compete
for atleast one job
v3 = v3 - 2
Base 4 7 4 8
Vertical line represents reduction
u1 = u1 + 2 Person 1 6 8 4 10
in base price
2 4 7 6 9
3 5 7 10 8 Horizontal line represents
u4 = u4 + 2 4 5 7 4 8 reduction in cost by an entity
 Wayne Winston Example (Page 379)

Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Tony Geary and John Travolta are marooned in a
desert island with Olivia Newton John, Loni Anderson, Dolly Parton and Genie
Francis. The compatibility measures in the table indicate how much happiness
each couple would experience if they spent all their time together. The
happiness earned by a couple is proportional to the fraction of time they spend
together. For example, if Tony and Genie spend half the time together, happiness
is 9/2 = 4.5. The goal of the eight people is to maximize total happiness
7 5 8 2
7 8 9 4 Marriage theorem
3 5 7 9
5 5 6 7
 Stable Marriage problem

Man Preferences Woman Preferences

1 3, 1, 4, 2 1 4, 3, 1, 2
2 1, 3, 4, 2 2 3, 4, 1, 2
3 4, 3, 1, 2 3 3, 2, 1, 4
4 3, 2, 1, 4 4 4, 2, 3, 1

Here the assignment X14 = X23 = X31 = X42 = 1 is not feasible because the
pair 3-3 is a blocked pair. Man 3 is assigned to woman 1 who has a lower
preference than woman 3 and woman 3 is assigned to man 2 who has a
lower preference than man 3. This assignment is not “stable”
We have the standard assignment constraints and extra constraints to
prevent “blocked pair”.
If we consider a 4 x 4 problem and there are 16 pairs possible. There are 16
constraints to prevent blocked pairs.
Consider the pair 2-4. The constraint is X24 + X22 + X34 + X14 ≤ 1.

Application in student – guide allocation

Company – projects
Employee - Projects