Transportation problem

Transportation problem:

Transportation problem is a special kind of linear programming problem in which gods are transported from a set
of sources to a set of destinations subject to the supply and demand of the sources and destination, respectively,
such that the total cost of transportation is minimized.

Examples of transportation problem

A cold drink manufacturing concern has m plants located in m different cities of a country. The total supply
potential of the manufactured product is observed by n retail shops in n different cities of the country.
Determine the transportation schedule that minimize the total cost of transporting cold drinks from various plant
locations to various retail shops.

Mathematical Formulation of the Problem:

Show that transportation problem (T.P) is a special case of Linear Programming Problem.

A transportation problem can be stated mathematically as a linear programming problem as below

m n
Minimize z  xij cij
i 1 j 1

Subject to the constraints:

n
 xij  ai , i  1, 2,  , m
j 1
m
 xij  b j , j  1, 2,  , n
i 1
x ij  0 for all i and j

Where,
ai  Quantity of commodity available at origin

b j  Quantity of commodity needed at destination

cij  Cost of transporting one unit of commodity from origin i to destination j and

xij  Quantity transportation from origin i to destination j .

Transportation Table:
Transportation table is a especially designed table which is constructed to solve the transportation proble
symbolically.

Transportation Problem - 1
 Destination

1 2  n
Supply

x11 x12 x1n

1  a1
c11 c12 c1n

c 21 x22 x 2n
2  a2
c 21 c22 c 2n
Origin

     

x m1 xm2 x mn
m  am
c m2 cm2 c mn

Demand b1 b  bn

This is the sample of the transportation table with m origins and n destinations.

The transportation table represents a matrix within a matrix. The one is the cost matrix representing unit

transportation cost c ij , indicating the cost of shipping a unit from the ith origin to the jth destination. Another is

x ij is the amount of transported commodity from origin i to destination j . Right and bottom sides of the

transportation table point out the amounts of suppliers a i available at sources i and the amounts of demanded

b j at destination j .

Theorem: (Existence of Feasible Solution):

A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a feasible solution to a transportation problem is that
m n
 a i   b j   say 
i 1 j 1

Proof:
The condition is necessary. Let there exist a feasible solution to the T.P. then, we have,
m n m n m n
 x ij   ai and  x ij  bj
i 1 j 1 i 1 j 1 i 1 j 1

Yielding
m n
 a i   b j   say 
i 1 j 1

ai b j
Sufficiency: we assert that there exists a feasible solution given by xij  for all i and j . Clearly,

xij  0 since ai  0, b j  0 for all i and j .

Transportation Problem - 2
 Also,
n n
 ai b j  ai n
ai
 xij        bj  
  ai ; i  1, 2,  , m
j 1 j 1 j 1
m m
 ai b j  bj m bj
and  xij         ai  
  bj ; j  1, 2,  , m
i 1 i 1 i 1

Thus, x ij satisfies all the constraints of the T.P. and hence is a feasible solution.

Adjacent cell / Occupied cell:

The allocated cells in the transportation table are called occupied cells or adjacent cells. Empty cells are called
non-occupied cells.

Degenerate solution:
When number of positive allocation in any basic feasible solution are less than m  n  a , the solution is said to
be degenerate where m is the number of row and n is the number of column of a transportation table (T.T).

Or we can say, a basic feasible solution to a general L.P.P is said to be degenerate if one or more of the basic
variables becomes equal to zero.

Types of Transportation Problem:

The transportation problem can be classified into balanced and unbalanced transportation problem T.P.

Balanced Transportation Problem:

If the sum of the supplies of all the sources is equal to the sum of the demands of all the destinations, then the
m n
problem is termed as balanced T.P. This may be represented by the relation  ai   b j
i 1 i 1

Unbalanced Transportation Problem:

If the sum of the supplies of all the sources is not equal to the sum of the demands of all the destinations, then the
problem is termed as unbalanced transportation problem.
m n
Notationally it can be written as  ai   b j
i 1 j 1

Methods for Finding the Initial Basic Feasible Solution for a Transportation Problem:
For finding the initial basic feasible solution the following methods to be used.
i. The North-West Corner Method (NWCM)
ii. The Row-Minima Method (RMM)
iii. The Column Minima Method (CMM)
iv. The Matrix Minima Method (MMM)
v. The Vogel’s Approximation Method (VAM)

Transportation Problem - 3
North-West Corner Rule (NWC):
The North-west corner rule, for solving the initial Basic Feasible Solution (IBFS) of a T.P. has some step

Step 1 : The first assignment is made in the cell occupying the upper left corner (north-west) of the
transportation table. The maximum feasible allocation is allocated there, i.e. x11  min( a1 , b1 ) . So

that, either the capacity of origin O1 is satisfied or the requirement at destination D1 is satisfied or

both. The value of x11 is entered in the upper left corner of the cell 1, 1 in T.T.

Step 2 : If b1  a1 the capacity of origin O1 is satisfied but requirement at destination D1 is satisfied but still

not satisfied. Then the second allocation is made in the cell 2, 1 i.e. x 21  min( a 2 , b1  x11 ) in the

cell 2, 1 .

If b1  a1 , we move right horizontally to the second column and make the second allocation of

magnitude x12  min( a1  x11 , b2 ) in the cell 1, 2  .

If a1  b1 the origin capacity is completely satisfied and at the same time the requirement also
satisfied. Then there is a tie for the 2nd allocation and an arbitrary tie breaking choice is made
x12  min( a1  a1 , b2 )  0 in the cell 1, 2  or x21  min( a2 , b1  b2 )  0 in the cell 2, 1 .

Step 3 : Repeating steps 1 and 2 moving down towards the lower right corner of the transportation table until
all the rim requirements are satisfied.
Thus the transportation cost is: z  x11c11  

Row Minimum Method:

Row Minima Method has some steps.

Step 1 : Determining the smallest cost in the row of the transportation table. Let it be C ij . We allocate the

minimum feasible amount xij  min( ai , b j ) in the cell i, j  . So that, either the capacity of origin

O1 is satisfied or the requirement at destination D j is satisfied or both.

Step 2 : If xij  a1 , so that the availability at origin O1 is completely satisfied, we have to cross off the first

row of the T.T and moving down to the 2nd row.

If xij  b j so that the requirement at destination D j is satisfied, we cross of f the jth column and

reconsidering first row with the remaining availability or origin O1 .

If xij  a1  b j , the origin capacity of O1 is completely satisfied as well the requirement at

destination D j is completely satisfied. An arbitrary tie breaking choice is made, we have to cross

off the first row and made the allocation x1k  0 in the cell 1, k  with C ik with being the new
minimum cost in the first row. Then we cross off the first row and moving down to the 2nd row.

Step 3 : Repeating the steps 1 and 2 until all the rim requirements are satisfied.
Transportation Problem - 4
Least cost or Matrix Minima Method (M.M.M):
Matrix Minima Method (M.M.M) has some steps-

Steps 1 : Determining the smallest cost in the cost matrix of the transportation table. Let it be cij . We have to

allocate xij  min( ai , b j ) in the cell i, j  .

Step 2 : If xij  ai we have to cross off the ith row of the T.T and decrease b j by a i . Then we go to step-3.

If x ij  b j , we have to cross off the jth column of the T.T and decrease a i by b j . Then we go to

step-3.

If xij  ai  b j , we have to cross off either the ith row or the jth column but not both. Then we go to

step-3.

Step 3 : Repeating steps 1 and 2 for the resulting reduced transportation table until all the rim requirements
are satisfied. Whenever the minimum cost is not unique, we make an arbitrary choice among the
minima.

Vogal’s Approximation Method (Penalty Method):

This method has some steps-

Step 1 : We calculate penalties by taking difference between the minimum and next to minimum unit
transportation costs in each row and each column.

Step 2 : We circle the largest Row difference or column Difference. In the event of a tie, we have to choose
either.

Step 3 : We allocate as much as possible in the lowest cost cell of the row (or column) having a circled row
(column) difference.

Step 4 : In case the allocation is made fully to a row (or column), we have to ignore that row (or column) for
further consideration, by crossing it.

Step 5 : We revise the differences again and cross out the earlier figures then we go to step-2.

Step 6 : Continuing the procedure until all rows and columns have been crossed out.

Transportation Problem - 5