ISSN 0974 - 9373

Vol. 17 No.2 (2013) Journal of International Academy of Physical Sciences pp. 187-202

A Least Cost Assignment Technique for

Solving Assignment Problems
P. R. Sharma
Department of Mathematics
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur

S. Shukla
S. S. Jain Subodh P.G. College, Jaipur
Email: [email protected]

(Received December 02, 2012)

Abstract: Assignment problem is a special kind of transportation

problem in which each source should have the capacity to fulfill the
demand of any of the destination. In other words, any operator should be
able to perform any job regardless of his skills. Classical Assignment
Problem (AP) is a well-known topic discussed in real physical world. We
consider many classical problems from location theory which may serve
as theoretical models for several logistic problems such that some linear
or quadratic function attains its minimum. It turns out that linear objective
function yields a linear assignment problem, which can be solved easily
by several primal-dual methods like Hungarian method, Shortest
augmenting path method etc. In this paper, a new approach is applied to
solve all types of assignment problems with minimized or maximized
objective functions, namely least cost assignment technique. This method
proposes momentous advantages over similar methods. Proposed method
is a systematic procedure and easy to apply.
Keywords: Assignment Problem, Least Cost Assignment Technique.
AMS Classification: 90Bxx

1. Introduction
The assignment problem is one of the earliest applications of linear
integer programming problem. A variety of practical problems turn out to
be a special instance of the assigning problem, i.e. a problem, where one
looks for an assignment of members of set A to members of set B such
that some function attains its optimum. It may always assumed that the
numbers of elements in sets A and B are equal and that we want to assign
exactly one element from A to each element from B. Solving such a
problem often means that some functions are evaluated for each
assignment. Since there are n! possible assignments, where n is the
188 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

number of elements in A, this may lead to a very hard problem. The

assignment problem arises in a variety of situations. Assignment problem
is a typical combinatorial optimization problem, which are
i. Assigning jobs to machines
ii. Assigning sales personnel to sales territories
iii. Assigning contracts to bidders
iv. Assigning agent to tasks
v. Assigning taxis to customers
The distinguishing feature of assignment problems is that one agent is
assigned to one and only one tasks. For example, if we have three taxies A,
B, C and three customers 1, 2, 3, who want a taxi then A→3, B→1, C→2 is
a possible assignment.
We will initially assume that

Number of agents = Number of tasks.

Problem satisfying this condition are called balanced problem.
Example: Suppose that some company wants to build a factory
(building 1) to produce certain products, a warehouse (building 2) to store
the products and a new shop (building 3) to sell these products. It owns
three pieces of land in three different cities. It wants to locate these
buildings on the given sites of land in such a way that

i. The total construction cost plus

ii. The total interaction between these buildings is minimal.

Figure1. Example of an assignment problem with 3 buildings and 3 sites

Different methods have been presented to solve assignment problem by

flood (1956), Gupta (2008), Wayne (2010), Hadi (2012). A considerable
number of methods have been so far presented for assignment problem in
which, the best known, most widely used, and most written about method
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 189

for solving the assignment problem is the Hungarian Method, originally

suggested by Kuhn in 1955. Ford and Fulkerson (1955) provided vital ideas
for the untimely approaches used in solving network flow problems, which
extended to solve the transportation problem, and generalized to solve the
linear programming problem. It is a dual method with a feasible assignment
being obtained only at the last computational step.
In this paper, least cost assignment technique is applied for all type of
assignment problems. The proposed method is a methodical process, easy to
apply and can be exploited for all types of assignment problems with
maximize or minimize objective functions presented through numerical
examples.
2. Mathematical Formulation of Assignment Problem
Assignment problem is a special kind of transportation problem in
which each source should have the capacity to fulfil the demand of any of
the destinations. In other words, any operator should be able to perform any
job regardless of his skills, although the cost will be more if the job does not
match with the workers skill. An example of assigning operators to jobs in a
shop floor situation is shown through Table-1.

Operators 1 2 3 ………. J ………..n

→
jobs
↓
1 ………. c1 j
c11 c12 c13 ……….. c1n
2 ………. c 2 j
c21 c22 c23 ……….. c2n
3 ………. c3 j
c31 c32 c33 ……….. c3n
……….. …… ….. ….. ………… …………
……….. …… ….. ….. ………… …………
i ci1 ci 2 ci 3 ……….. cij ………… cin
……….. ….. ….. …. ……….. ………….
……….. ….. ….. …. ……….. ………….
n ……….. cnj
cn1 cn 2 cn3 …………. cnn
Table1. Generalized Format of Assignment Problem

Here, m is the numbers of jobs as well as the number of operators and cij be
the processing time of the job i if it is assigned to the operator j. The
objective is to assign the jobs to the operators such that the total processing
time is minimized. Table 2 summarized different examples of the
assignment problems.
190 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

Row Entry Column Entry Cell Entry

Jobs Operators Processing time
Operators Machine Processing time
Teachers Subjects Student pass percentage
Physicians Treatments Number of case handled
Drivers Routs Travel time

Table 2. Examples of Assignment problem

Zero-One Programming Model for Assignment Problem

A zero-one programming model for assignment problem is presented
below
Minimize Z = c11 x11 + c12 x12 + .... + c1m x1m + c21 x21 + c22 x22 + .... + c2m x2 m + ....
+ci1 xi1 + ci 2 xi 2 + .... + cim xim + .... + cm1 xm1 + cm2 xm 2 + .... + cmm xmm .
Subject to x11 + x12 + ..... + x1 j + .... + x1m = 1 ,
x21 + x22 + ..... + x2 j + .... + x2 m = 1 ,
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
xi1 + xi 2 + ..... + xij + .... + xim = 1 ,
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
xm1 + xm 2 + ..... + xmj + .... + xmm = 1 ,
x11 + x21 + ..... + xi1 + .... + xm1 = 1 ,
x12 + x22 + ..... + xi 2 + .... + xm 2 = 1 ,
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
x1 j + x2 j + ..... + xij + .... + xmj = 1 ,
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
(2.1) x1m + x2 m + ..... + xim + .... + xmm = 1 ,
x ij = 0 or 1, for i = 1, 2, ...., m and
j = 1, 2, ...., m .
The above model is presented in a short form as
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 191
m m
(2.2) Min z = ∑∑ cij xij
i =1 j =1

m
∑ xij = 1, i = 1, 2,...., m
(2.3)  j =1
m
subject to ∑ xij = 1, j = 1, 2,...., m
 i =1
 xij = 0 or 1, i, j = 1, 2,..., m


here, m being the number of rows (jobs) as well as the number of columns
(operators) and cij the time/cost of assigning the row i to the column j.

xij = 1, if the row i is assigned to the column j

Thus,
= 0, otherwise.

In this model the objective function minimizes the total cost of assigning
the row to the columns. The first set of constraints ensures that each row is
assigned to only one column. The second set of constraints ensures that each
column is assigned to only one row.
Here cij can be replaced by d ij in the zero-one assignment problem in the
maximization form and can solve it by any standard procedure (Hungarian
method or by any software) to get the optimal assignment. In that case the
model for the preference assignment problem becomes
m m
(2.4) Max z = ∑∑ dij xij
i =1 j =1

 n
∑ xij = 1, j = 1, 2,...., m
 i =1
(2.5)  n
subject to ∑ xij = 1, i = 1, 2,...., m
 j =1
 x = 0 or 1, i, j = 1, 2,..., m
 ij


3. Method of Solution
Algorithm for finding the optimal solution of assignment problem is
presented below
Step-I. First, we find row penalties, i.e. the difference between the first
minimum and second minimum in each row. If the two minimum values are
same then the row penalty is zero.
192 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

Step-II. Find column penalties, i.e. the difference between the first
minimum and second minimum in each column. If the two minimum values
are same then the column penalty is zero.

Step-III. Find the maximum penalty amongst the row penalties and the
column penalties and identify whether it occurs in a row or in a column. If
the maximum penalties is in a row then go to next step otherwise go to step-
VI.

Step-IV. Identify the cell for assign which has the least cost in that row.

Step-V. Assign this least cost to that cell and go to step-IX.

Step-VI. Identify the cell for assign which has the least cost in that column.

Step-VII. Find the least cost in that cell.

Step-VIII. Now assign this least value to the selected cell.

Step-IX. Check whether exactly one of the row/column corresponding to

the selected cell. If yes, than go to next step.

Step-X. Delete both the row and column which has the assign element to the
selected cell. Then revise the above procedure for row and column penalties.

Step-XI. Check whether exactly one row/column is left out, if yes then we
get the complete solution.

Step-XII. At last we make all assign elements in given table, which is

optimal solution of given problem.
Types of Assignment Problems
There are four types of assignment problems

Type-I: Balanced assignment problem- If the number of rows (jobs) is

equal to the number of column (operators), then the problem is termed as a
balanced assignment problem.

Type-II: Unbalanced assignment problem- Whenever the cost matrix

of an assignment problem is not a square matrix is called an unbalanced
assignment problem. If the problem is unbalanced, like an unbalanced
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 193

transportation problem, then necessary numbers of dummy

row(s)/column(s) are added such that the cost matrix is a square matrix the
values for the entries in the dummy row(s)/column(s) are assumed to be
zero, under such a condition, while implementing the solution, the dummy
row(s) or column(s) will not have assignment(s).

Type-III: Maximization case in assignment problems- There are

problems where certain facilities have to be assigned to a number of jobs so
as to maximize the overall performance of the assignment. The problem can
be converted into a minimization problem in the following two ways
(a) select the greatest element of the given cost matrix and then subtract
each element of the matrix from the greatest element to get the modified
matrix.
(b) Multiply each element of the matrix by (-1) to get the modified matrix.

Type-IV: Problem with restricted (infeasible) assignment- It is

sometimes possible that a particular person is in capable of doing curtain
work or a specific job cannot be performed on a particular machine. The
solution of the assignment problem should take into account these
restrictions so that the infeasible assignment can be avoided. This can be
achieved by assigning a very high cost M (say) to the sales where
assignments are prohibited, there by restricting the entry of this pair of job-
machine into the final solution. Some cases a certain worker cannot be
assigned a particular job. The reasons for impossible assignments are
numerous. Back of required skills, deficiency in technical know-how,
improper training and physical inability are only a few many reasons. For
solving such type of assignment problems we put infinite cost in the cell
where no assignment is possible. The remaining procedure is exactly the
same as the ordinary assignment problems.
3. Numerical Examples
Example–1. A department head has four subordinates and four tasks to
be performed. The subordinates differ in efficiency and the task differs in
their intrinsic difficulty. His estimate of the times each man would take to
perform each task is given in the effectiveness matrix below. How should
the task be allocated, one to a man, so as to minimize the total man hour

Tasks Subordinates
↓ I II III IV
194 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

A 8 26 17 11
B 13 28 4 26
C 38 19 18 15
D 19 26 24 10
Table 3
Solution:
Step-I. First, we calculate the penalties for all rows and columns. They are
written below the Table 4 for the row difference and aside the table for the
column differences. We now select column, III because it has the highest
penalty rating 13.we look at the cell with the least cost in the column III is
to be identified. Here it is the cell (B, III) with entry 4. So we assign 4 to (B,
III). Hence row and column are deleted corresponding to cell (B, III) and
resulting data shown in Table 5

Tasks Subordinates Penalty

↓ I II III IV ↓
A 8 26 17 11 3
B 13 28 4 26 9

C 38 19 18 15 3
D 19 26 24 10 9
Penalty 5 7 13 1
Table 4
Step-II. We now select column I because it has the highest penalty rating
11.we look at the cell with the least cost in the column I is to be identified.
Here it is the cell (A, I) with entry 8. So we assign 8 to (A, 1). Hence row
and column are deleted corresponding to cell (A, I) and resulting data shown
in Table 6
Tasks Subordinates Penalty
↓ I II IV ↓
A 8 26 11 3

C 38 19 15 4
D 19 26 10 9
Penalty 11 7 1
Table 5
Step-III. We now select row D because it has the highest penalty rating
16.we look at the cell with the least cost in the row D is to be identified.
Here it is the cell (D, II) with entry 10. So we assign 10 to (D, II). Hence
row and column are deleted corresponding to cell (D, II) and resulting data
shown in Table 7
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 195

Tasks Subordinates Penalty

↓ I II ↓
C 19 15 4
D 26 10 16

Penalty 7 5
Table 6
Step-IV. Here we have only one cost so we assign that cost, which is shown
in Table 7.

Tasks Subordinates
↓ I
C 19

Table 7
Step-V. The whole procedure can be done in a single table as given below

Tasks Subordinates
↓ I II III IV
A 8 26 17 11

B 13 28 4 26

C 38 19 18 15

D 19 26 24 10

Table 8
Hence optimal solution is: A→I, B→III, C→II, D→IV
Optimal value = 8+4+19+10=41.
Example-2. A company has four machines to do three jobs. Each job
can be assigned to one and only one machine. The cost of each job on each
machine is given in the following table
Jobs Machine
↓ W X Y Z
A 18 24 28 32
B 8 13 17 19
C 10 15 19 22
Table 9

What are the job assignments which will minimize the cost?
Solution: Step-I. This is a case of unbalanced assignment problem. So we
introduce a fictitious (dummy) job D with all entries zero and after this, the
technique is applied.

Jobs Machine
↓ W X Y Z
A 18 24 28 32
196 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

B 8 13 17 19
C 10 15 19 22
D 0 0 0 0
Table 10
Step-II. First, we calculate the penalties for all rows and columns. They are
written below the table for the row difference and aside the table for the
column differences. We now select column Z because it has the highest
penalty rating 19.we look at the cell with the least cost in the column Z is to
be identified. Here it is the cell (D, Z) with entry 0. So we assign 0 to (D, Z).
Hence row and column are deleted corresponding to cell (D, Z) and
resulting data shown in Table 12.

Jobs Machine Penalty

↓ W X Y Z ↓
A 18 24 28 32 6
B 8 13 17 19 5
C 10 15 19 22 5
D 0 0 0 0 0

Penalty 8 13 17 19
Table 11
Step-III. We now select row A because it has the highest penalty rating
6.we look at the cell with the least cost in the row A is to be identified. Here
it is the cell (A, W) with entry 18. So we assign 18 to (A, W). Hence row
and column are deleted corresponding to cell (A, W) and resulting data
shown in Table 13.

Jobs Machine Penalty

↓ W X Y ↓
A 18 24 28 6

B 8 13 17 5
C 10 15 19 5
Penalty 2 2 2

Table 12
Step-IV. We now select row B because it has the highest penalty rating
4.we look at the cell with the least cost in the row B is to be identified. Here
it is the cell (B, X) with entry 13. So we assign 13 to (B, X). Hence row and
column are deleted corresponding to cell (B, X) and resulting data shown in
Table 14
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 197

Jobs Machine Penalty

↓ X Y ↓
B 13 17 4

C 15 19 4
Penalty 2 2
Table 13
Step-V. Here we have only one cost so we assign that cost, which is shown
in Table 14.
Jobs Machine
↓ Y
C 19

Table 14
Step-VI. The whole procedure can be done in a single table as the given
below.
Jobs Machine
↓ W X Y Z
A 18 24 28 32
B 8 13 17 19
C 10 15 19 22
D 0 0 0 0
Table 15
Hence optimal solution is: A→W, B→X, C→Y, D→Z
The minimum cost = 18+13+19+0=50 Rs.
Example-3. A marketing manner has five salesman and sales-districts.
Considering the capabilities of the salesman and the nature of districts, the
marketing manager estimates that
sale per month (in hundred Rupees) for each salesman in each district would
be as follows
Salesman Districts
↓ A B C D E
1 32 38 40 28 40
2 40 24 28 21 36
3 41 27 33 30 37
4 22 38 41 36 36
5 29 33 40 35 39
Table 16
Find the assignment of salesman to districts that will result in maximum
sales.
Solution:
Step-I. This is an assignment problem of profit maximization type; we
convert it into an assignment problem of cost minimization type by
198 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

formatting anew modified matrix, obtained by subtracting each entry of the

matrix from the greatest entry 41 of the matrix. The resulting problem will
solve as the problem of minimization cost.

Salesman Districts
↓ A B C D E
1 9 3 1 13 1
2 1 17 13 20 5
3 0 14 8 11 4
4 19 3 0 5 5
5 12 11 1 6 2
Table 17
Step-II. First, we calculate the penalties for all rows and columns. They are
written below the table for the row difference and aside the table for the
column differences. We now select row 3 because it has the highest penalty
rating 4.we look at the cell with the least cost in the row 3 is to be identified.
Here it is the cell (3, A) with entry 0. So we assign 0 to (3, A). Hence row
and column are deleted corresponding to cell (3, A) and resulting data
shown in Table 19.

Salesman Districts Penalty

↓ A B C D E ↓
1 9 3 1 13 1 0
2 1 17 13 20 5 4
3 0 14 8 11 4 4

4 19 3 0 5 5 3
5 12 11 1 6 2 1
Penalty 1 0 1 1 1
Table 18
Step-III: We now select row 2 because it has the highest penalty rating
8.we look at the cell with the least cost in the row 2 is to be identified. Here
it is the cell (2, E) with entry 5. So we assign 5 to (2, E). Hence row and
column are deleted corresponding to cell (2, E) and resulting data shown in
Table 20.

Salesman Districts Penalty

↓ B C D E ↓
1 3 1 13 1 0
2 17 13 20 5 8

4 3 0 5 5 5
5 11 1 6 2 1
Penalty 0 1 1 1
Table 19
Step-IV: We now select row 5 because it has the highest penalty rating 5.we
look at the cell with the least cost in the row 5 is to be identified. Here it is
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 199

the cell (5, C) with entry 1. So we assign 1 to (5, C). Hence row and column
are deleted corresponding to cell (5, C) and resulting data shown in Table 21

Salesman Districts Penalty

↓ B C D ↓
1 3 1 13 2
4 3 0 5 3
5 11 1 6 5

Penalty 0 1 1
Table 20

Step-V: We now select row 1 because it has the highest penalty rating
10.we look at the cell with the least cost in the row 1 is to be identified.
Here it is the cell (1, B) with entry 3. So we assign 3 to (1, B). Hence row
and column are deleted corresponding to cell (1, B) and resulting data
shown in Table 22

Salesman Districts Penalty

↓ B D ↓
1 3 13 10

4 3 5 2
Penalty 0 8
Table 21
Step-VI. Here we have only one cost so we assign 5 to (4, D), which is
shown in Table 23.
Salesman Districts
↓ D
4 5

Table 22
Step-VII. The whole procedure can be done in a single table as given below
Salesman Districts
↓ A B C D E
1 32 38 40 28 40

2 40 24 28 21 36
3 41 27 33 30 37

4 22 38 41 36 36

5 29 33 40 35 39

Table 23
Hence optimal solution is: 1→B, 2→E, 3→A, 4→D, 5→C,
200 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

The maximum sales = 38+36+41+36+40=191×100=19100 Rs.

Example-4. The secretary of a school is taking bids on the city’s four
school bus routes. Four companies have made the bids a detailed in the
following table
Company Bids
↓ Route 1 Route 2 Route 3 Route 4
1 4 5 - -
2 - 4 - 4
3 3 - 2 -
4 - - 4 5
Table 24
Suppose each bidder can be assigned only one route. Use the assignment
model to minimize the school’s cost of running the four routes.
Solution:
Step-I. First, we calculate the penalties for all rows and columns. They
are written below the table for the row difference and aside the table for the
column differences. We now select column 3 because it has the highest
penalty rating 2.we look at the cell with the least cost in the column3 is to be
identified. Here it is the cell (3, 3) with entry 2. So we assign 2 to (3, 3).
Hence row and column are deleted corresponding to cell (3, 3) and resulting
data shown in Table 26.
Company Bids Penalty
↓ Route 1 Route 2 Route 3 Route 4 ↓
1 4 5 - - 1
2 - 4 - 4 0
3 3 - 2 - 1

4 - - 4 5 1
Penalty 1 1 2 1
Table 25
Step-II. We now select row 1 because it has the highest penalty rating 1.we
look at the cell with the least cost in the row 1 is to be identified. Here it is
the cell (1, 1) with entry 4. So we assign 4 to (1, 1). Hence row and column
are deleted corresponding to cell (1, 1) and resulting data shown in Table
27.

Company Bids Penalty

↓ Route 1 Route 2 Route 4 ↓
1 4 5 - 1

2 - 4 4 0
4 - - 5 -
Penalty - 1 1
Table 26
 A Least Cost Assignment Technique For Solving Assignment Problems 201

Step-III. We now select column 2 because it has the highest penalty rating
1.we look at the cell with the least cost in the column 2 is to be identified.
Here it is the cell (4, 4) with entry 4. but we cannot assign this cost, in this
case we assign 4 to (2, 2) and 5 to (4, 4).

Company Bids Penalty

↓ Route 2 Route 4 ↓
2 4 4 0

4 - 5 -

Penalty - 1
Table 27
Step-IV. The whole procedure can be done in a single table as given below
Company Bids
↓ Route 1 Route 2 Route 3 Route 4
1 4 5 - -

2 - 4 - 4

3 3 - 2 -

4 - - 4 5

Table 28
Hence optimal solution is: 1→1, 2→2, 3→3, 4→4
The minimum cost = 4+4+2+5= 15 Rs.

Conclusion
In this paper, a new technique namely least cost assignment technique is
introduced to solve assignment problem. This method is applicable for all
kind of assignment problems, whether maximize or minimize objective
function. In this method we do not require to mark any row or column to
draw minimum number of lines, so this technique is systematic, easy to
apply and consume less time in comparison to another techniques. This
technique gives better optimal solution in comparison with Hungarian
method.

References

1. M. M. Flood, The Travelling Salesman Problem, Operations Research, 4 (1956) 61-75.

2. L. R Ford and D. R Fulkerson, A Simple Algorithm for Finding Maximal Network
Flows and an Application to the Hitchcock Problem, Canadian Journal of Mathematics,
9 (1957) 210-218.
3. K. P. Gupta, Operations Research, Krishna Prakashan, (2008) 485-520.
202 P. R. Sharma and S. Shukla

4. B. Hadi, Ones Assignment Method for Solving Assignment Problems, Applied

Mathematical Sciences, 6 (2012) 2345 – 2355.
5. Hamdy A. Taha, Operations Research, an introduction, Pearson, 2007.
6. H.W. Kuhn, Variants of the Hungarian Method for Assignment Problem, Naval Research
Logistics Quarterly, 3 (1956) 253-258.
7. H. W. Kuhn, The Hungarian Method for the Assignment Problem, Naval Research
Loqistics Quarterly, 2 (1955) 83-97.
8. M. S. Bazarra, J. J. Jarvis, Hanif. D. Sherali, Linear programming and network flows,
Wiley 2005.
9. J. Munkres, Algorithms for the Assignment and Transportation Problems, Journal of the
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 5 (1957) 32-38.
10. L. W. Wayne, Operations Research, Cengage Publication, (2010) 393-400.