ASSIGNMENT

4
Basic Concept
In an assignment problem there are N jobs and N operators. Any job can be assigned to any
operator. The cost of each assignment is available. The objective is to find out the optimal job
operator assignment which minimizes total cost.

Procedure for Solving an Assignment problem:

Step I: Find the minimum element of a row and subtract this minimum element from each
element of the row. Repeat this for each row.
Step II: Find the minimum element of a column and subtract this minimum element from each
element of the column. Repeat this for each column.
Step III: Cancel all the zeros by drawing minimum number of Horizontal and / or vertical lines. If
minimum number of lines used for cancelling the zeros is equal to the order of matrix, the
problem has reached to optimal solution; hence, proceed to optimal assignment.

Optimal Assignment Rules

Find a single zero in a row or in a column and assign it.
If the single zero happens to be in a row, cancel all the zeros appropriate to this one in
the corresponding column.
If the single zero happens to be in a column, cancel all the zeros appropriate to this one
in the corresponding row.
Proceed in this way till all assignments are complete.
If we do not find a single zero either in a row or column, choose any one zero arbitrarily
and proceed accordingly.
if minimum number of lines used for cancelling the zeros is not equal to the order of matrix, the
problem has reached non-optimal solution. To reach the optimal solution, proceed to generate
additional zeros by taking the following steps:
(a) Find the minimum of un-cut elements and subtract this minimum from all the un-cut
elements.
(b) Add this minimum to the intersection numbers
(c) Apply step III (mentioned above) to find whether optimal solution has been reached. If
yes, apply Optimal Assignment rules. If not, repeat (a) and (b) till optimal solution is
reached and then apply optimal assignment rules.
CA-FINAL 4.1 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL
OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

Q1. A Computer center has three expert programmers. The center wants three applications
Programmes to be developed. The head of the computer centre, after studying carefully the
Programmes to be developed, estimates the computer time in minutes required by the experts
for the application Programmes as follows:
Programs
Programmers
A B C
1 120 100 80
2 80 90 110
3 110 140 120

Q2. An Accounts Officer has 4 subordinates and 4 tasks. The subordinates differ in efficiency.
The tasks also differ in their intrinsic difficulty. His estimates of the time each would take to
perform each task is given in the matrix below. How should the tasks be allotted one to one
man, so that the total man-hours are minimized?
Task
I II III IV
1 8 26 17 11
2 13 28 4 26
3 38 19 18 15
4 19 26 24 10

Q3. A BPO company is taking bids for 4 routes in the city to ply pick-up and drop cabs. Four
companies have made bids as detailed below:
`)
Bid for Routes (`
Company R1 R2 R3 R4
C1 4,000 5,000 --- ---
C2 --- 4,000 --- 4,000
C3 3,000 --- 2,000 ---
C4 --- --- 4,000 5,000
Each bidder can be assigned only one route. Determine the minimum cost that the BPO should
incur.

Q4. An organization producing 4 different products viz A, B, C and D having operators viz P, Q, R
and S who are capable of producing any of the four products, works effectively 7 hours a day.

CA-FINAL 4.2 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
The time (in minutes) required for each operator for producing each of the product are given in
the cells of the following matrix along with profit.
Product
Operator A B C D
P 6 10 14 12
Q 7 5 3 4
R 6 7 10 10
S 20 10 15 15

Profit (`/ Unit) 3 2 4 1

Find out the assignment of operators to products, which will maximize the profit.

Q5. A manufacturing company, has four zones A, B, C and four sales engineers P, Q, R, S
respectively for assignment. Since the zones are not equally rich in sales potential, therefore it is
estimated that a particular engineer “P” operating in all the zone will bring the following sales:
Zone A: 4,20,000
Zone B: 3,36,000
Zone C: 2,49,000
Zone D: 4,62,000
The engineers are having different sales ability. Working under the same conditions, their yearly
sales are proportional to 14,9,11 and 8 respectively. The criteria of maximum expected total
sales are to be met by assigning the best engineer to the richest zone. The second best to the
Second richest zone and so on.
Find the optimum assignment and the maximum sales.

Q6. A solicitor’s firm employs typists on hourly rate basis for their daily work. There are five
typists for service and their charges and speeds are different. According to an earlier
understanding only one job is given to one typist and the typist is paid for full hours even if he
works for a fraction of an hour, find the least cost allocation for the following data

Typist `)
Rate/ hour (` No. of pages type/ hour Job No. of pages
A 5 12 P 199
B 6 14 Q 175
C 3 8 R 145
D 4 10 S 198
E 4 11 T 178

CA-FINAL 4.3 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

Q7. Kingfisher Airlines operating 7 days a week has given the following Timetable. Crews must
have a minimum layover of 5 hours between flights. Obtain the pairing flights that minimize
layover time away from home. For any given pairing the crew will be based either at the city
that results in the smaller layover.

Chennai – Mumbai Mumbai – Chennai

Flight No. Dep Arrive Flight No. Dep Arrive
A1 6am 8am B1 8am 10am
A2 8am 10am B2 9am 11am
A3 2pm 4pm B3 2pm 4pm
A4 8pm 10pm B4 7pm 9pm

Q8. [Study Material] Well done company has 5 rooms to be assigned to five managers. Each
room has its advantages and disadvantages. Each of the 5 managers was asked to rank their
room preferences amongst the rooms 301, 302, 303, 304 and 305. Their preferences were
recorded in the table as given.
Most of the managers did not list all the 5 rooms since they were not satisfied with some of
these rooms and they have left off these from the list. Assuming that their preferences can be
quantified by numbers, find out as to which manager should be assigned to which room so that
their preference ranking is a minimum.

Manager
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5
302 302 303 302 301
303 304 301 305 302
304 305 304 304 304
301 305 303
302

Q9. A company has four zones open and four marketing managers available for assignments.
The zones are not equal in sales potentials. It is estimated that a typical marketing manager
operating in each zone would bring in the following annual sales.
Zones East West North South
`)
Sales (` 2,40,000 1,92,000 1,44,000 1,20,000

CA-FINAL 4.4 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

The four marketing managers are also different in ability. It is estimated that working under the
same conditions, their yearly sales would be proportionately as under:
Manager M N O P
Proportion 8 7 5 4
If the criterion is maximum expected total sales, find the optimum assignment and the
maximum sales.

Q10. A city corporation has decided to carry out repairs on 4 main roads in the city. The
government has agreed to make a special grant of ` 50 Lakhs towards the cost with the
condition that the repairs should be carried out at the lowest cost. Five contractors have sent
the bids. Only one road will be awarded to one contractor. The bids are given below:
Cost of repairs (` Lakhs)
Road R1 R2 R3 R4
C1 9 14 19 15
C2 7 17 20 19
Contractors C3 9 18 21 18
C4 10 12 18 19
C5 10 15 21 16
You are informed that C2 should get R1 and C4 should get R2 to minimize the costs.
(i) What is the minimum cost allocation?
(ii) How much is the minimum discount that the eliminated contractors should offer for
meriting a contract?
(iii) Independent of (ii) above, if the corporation can negotiate to get a uniform discount rate
from each contractor, what is the minimum rate of discount so that the cost is within the
grant amount?

Q11. A hospital has to pay nurses for 40 hours a week. One nurse is assigned to one patient. The
cost per hour for each of the nurses is given below:

(i) Find the nurse patient combination

Patient W X Y
to minimize cost to the hospital.
Nurse
(ii) How much does each nurse earn per
K 10 10 30
week?
L 30 10 20
M 20 30 20

CA-FINAL 4.5 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
Suppose that a new patient Z is admitted and that a new nurse is appointed. The new patient is
charged ` 40 per hour by each of the existing nurses. The new nurse charges ` 50 per hour
irrespective of the patient.
(iii) What would be your revised calculations?
(iv) Comment on the new solution.

Q12. The following matrix was obtained after performing row minimum operation on rows R1
and R2 in an assignment problem for minimization. Entries “xx” represent some positive
numbers. (it is not meant that all “xx” numbers are equal). State two circumstances under which
an optimal solution is obtained just after the row minimum and column minimum operations.
Candidates may use cell references as Ci Rj for uniformity, e.g. C1 R1 represents the cell at the
intersection column 1 (C1) and Row1 (R1) etc.

C1 C2 C3
R1 0 xx xx
R2 xx 0 xx
R3 xx xx xx

Ans12. The circumstances under which an optimal solution is obtained just after the row
minimum and column minimum operations are as follows:
(i) If C3 R3 is zero on performing row minimum operation on R3
[If this done, column minimum operation will not be required as (after row minimum
operation on R3 there will be zero in each column].
Optimal Solution
R1 C1
R2 C2
R3 C3

(ii) If C2 R3 is zero on performing row minimum operation on R3 and C3 R3 is zero on

performing column operation.
C1 C2 C3
R1 0 xx xx
R2 xx 0 xx
R3 xx 0 xx

CA-FINAL 4.6 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

C1 C2 C3
R1 0 xx xx
R2 xx 0 xx
R3 xx 0 00

Minimum No. of lines

C1 C2 C3
R1 0 xx xx
R2 xx 0 xx
R3 xx 0 00

As the minimum number of lines are equal to order of matrix, optimal assignment should be
made.

C1 C2 C3
R1 0 xx xx
R2 xx 0 xx
R3 xx 0 0

Optimal Solution
R1 C1
R2 C2
R3 C3

Q13. A production supervisor is considering how he should assign five jobs that are to be
performed to five operators. He has the following information about the wages paid to the
operators for performing these jobs:

Operation 1 Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4 Job 5

A 10 3 3 2 8
B 9 7 8 2 7
C 7 5 6 2 4
D 3 5 8 2 4
E 9 10 9 6 10

CA-FINAL 4.7 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
Assign the jobs to the operators so that the aggregate cost is least.

Ans 13:

Row Operations Column Operations

Operators Job Job Job Job Job Operators? Job Job Job Job Job
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
A 8 1 1 0 6 A 7 0 0 0 4
B 7 5 6 0 5 B 6 4 5 0 3
C 5 3 4 0 2 C 4 2 3 0 0
D 1 3 6 0 2 D 0 2 5 0 0
E 3 4 3 0 4 E 2 3 2 0 2

Minimum No. of lines

Operators Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4 Job 5

A 7 0 0 0 4
B 6 4 5 0 3
C 4 2 3 0 0
D 0 2 5 0 0
E 2 3 2 0 2

As the minimum number of lines is not equal to order of matrix, let’s take step to increase the
number of zeros.

Operators ↓ Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4 Job 5

A 7 0 0 2 6
B 4 2 3 0 3
C 2 0 1 0 0
D 0 2 5 2 2
E 0 1 0 0 2

Minimum No. of lines

Operators ↓ Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4 Job 5

A 7 0 0 2 6
B 4 2 3 0 3
C 2 0 1 0 0
D 0 2 5 2 2
E 0 1 0 0 2

CA-FINAL 4.8 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

As the minimum number of lines are equal to order of matrix, optimal assignment should be
made.

Operators ↓ Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4 Job 5

A 7 0 0 2 6
B 4 2 3 0 3
C 2 0 1 0 0
D 0 2 5 2 2
E 0 1 0 0 2

Optimal Assignment

Operators ↓ Job Cost

A 2 3
B 4 2
C 5 4
D 1 3
E 3 9
Total 21

Q14. The ICAI decides to hold special seminars on four contemporary topics for its members:
Ind. AS, Goods and Services Tax (GST), Negative list in Service tax and Direct Tax Code (DTC).
Such seminars should be held once in a week in the afternoons. However, scheduling these
seminars (one for each topic, and not more than one seminar per afternoon) has to be done
carefully so that the number of members unable to attend is kept to a minimum. A careful study
indicates that the number of members who cannot attend a particular seminar on a specific day
is as follow:

Ind. AS GST Negative list DTC

Monday 40 30 50 20
Tuesday 30 20 30 30
Wednesday 50 10 20 20
Thursday 20 30 10 30
Friday 10 20 10 30

Find an optimal schedule of the seminars. Also find out the total number of members who will
be missing at least one seminar.

CA-FINAL 4.9 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL

OPERATIONS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
Ans 14. This is an unbalanced minimization assignment problem. First of all balance the given
problem by dummy seminar:
Ind. AS GST Negative list DTC Dummy
Monday 40 30 50 20 0
Tuesday 30 20 30 30 0
Wednesday 50 10 20 20 0
Thursday 20 30 10 30 0
Friday 10 20 10 30 0
Row operation not required. Doing Colum operation.

Subtracting the minimum element of each column from all elements of that column, we get the
following matrix.
Ind. AS GST Negative list DTC Dummy
Monday 30 20 40 00 0
Tuesday 20 10 20 10 0
Wednesday 40 0 10 0 0
Thursday 10 20 00 10 0
Friday 00 10 0 10 0

The minimum number of lines to cover all zeros all zeros are 5 which is equal to the order of the
square matrix (i.e. 5), the above matrix will give the optimal solution which is given below
Day Topic No. of Members Missing
Monday DTC 20
Tuesday No Seminar 0
Wednesday GST 10
Thursday Negative list on Service tax 10
Friday Ind. AS 10
Total 50
Thus, the total number of members who will missing at least one seminar = 50

CA-FINAL 4.10 CA. RAJ K AGRAWAL