Session 6

Special Cases of LP:

Transportation,
Transshipment
and Assignment Problems
 Transportation Problem
• A distribution-type problem in which
supplies of goods that are held at various
locations are to be distributed to other
receiving locations.

• The solution of a transportation problem

will indicate to a manager the quantities
and costs of various routes and the
resulting minimum cost
 Other Examples
▪ Shipment
▪ From factories to warehouses

▪ Between departments within a company

▪ Production scheduling that includes

▪ Shipments of goods from a set of departments to
another set

▪ Choose best location for factories and

warehouses
▪ To achieve the minimum cost distribution
configuration
 A transportation problem
• Involves a set of sending locations, i.e. referred to as Origins,
and a set of receiving locations are referred as Destinations
• To develop a model of a transportation problem, one needs to
have the following information:

– Supply quantity (capacity) of each origin

– Demand quantity of each destination

– Unit transportation cost for each origin-destination route

All goods are homogeneous, so that any origin is
capable of supplying any destination

Transportation costs are a direct linear function of

the quantity shipped over any route

The total quantity available for shipment is equal to

the total quantity demanded

No capacity constraints, unless specified explicitly

Assumptions
 Practice Example
• Harley’s Sand and Gravel Pit has contracted to provide topsoil
for three residential housing developments. Topsoil supply
from three different “farms” and the demand for topsoil is as
follows. Formulate the LP and solve using Solver.
Demand
Farms Weekly Capacity (Cubic Yards) Project Weekly Demand (Cubic Yards)
Supply Farm A 100 1 50
Farm B 200 2 150
Farm C 200 3 300

• Cost of Shipping One Unit from the Farms to Projects ($)

Farms Project 1 Project 2 Project 3
Farm A 4 2 8
Farm B 5 1 9
Farm C 7 6 3
A Network diagram of a Transportation Problem
A Network diagram of a Transportation Problem

8
Transportation Table – General
Expression of the LP Model

From\To Project 1 Project 2 Project 3

1
X11 X12 X13
2
X21 X22 X23

3
X31 X32 X33

Decision Variables: Xij

 Transportation Table – General
Expression of the LP Model
From\To Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Supply

1 S1
X11 X12 X13

2 S2
X21 X22 X23

3 S3
X31 X32 X33
Demand D1 D2 D3

Demand and Supply parameters: bi

Transportation Table – General
Expression of the LP Model

From\To Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Supply

C11 C12 C13

1 S1
X11 X12 X13
C21 C22 C23
2 S2
X21 X22 X23
C31 C32 C33

3 S3
X31 X32 X33
Demand D1 D2 D3

Objective function coefficients: Cij

 Transportation Problem
Minimize
Z = C11X11+C12X12+C13X13+C21X21+C22X22+C23X23+C31X31+C32X32+C33X33
Subject to
Row 1 : X11 + X12 + X13 = S1
Row 2 : X21 + X22 + X23 = S2 Supply
Row 3 : X31 + X32 + X33 = S3
Col. 1 : X11 + X21 + X31 = D1
Col. 2 : X12 + X22 + X32 = D2 Demand
Col. 3 : X13 + X23 + X33 = D3
All Xij > = 0
General LP Format
Solution using Solver

Solve it using excel

 Special Cases of Transportation Problems
Maximization
Transportation-type problems
that concern profits or revenues
rather than costs with the
objective to maximize profits
rather than to minimize costs
Unacceptable Routes
Certain origin-destination
combinations may be
unacceptable due to weather
factors, equipment breakdowns,
labor problems, or skill
requirements that either
prohibit, or make undesirable,
certain combinations (routes).
 Special Cases of Transportation Problems
Demand
Unequal Supply and

• Situations in which supply and demand are not equal

• It is necessary to modify the original problem so that
supply and demand are equalized
• Quantities in dummy routes in the optimal solution are
not shipped and serve to indicate which supplier will hold
the excess supply, and how much, or which destination
will not receive its total demand, and how much it will be
short costs
 A transportation problem in which some
locations are used as intermediate shipping
points, thereby serving both as origins and as
destinations.

Involve the distribution of goods from

intermediate nodes in addition to multiple
sources and multiple destinations.

Transshipment Problems
 Transshipment Problem
• Suppose the manager of Harley’s Sand and Gravel Pit has decided to
utilize two intermediate transshipment points for temporary storage
of Topsoil. The revised costs are for shown below. Rest all remains
same. Find the best solution using LP.
• Cost of Shipping One Unit from the Farms to Warehouse ($)
From/To Warehouse 1 (4) Warehouse 2 (5)
Farm A (1) 3 2
Farm B (2) 4 3
Farm C (3) 2.5 3.5

• Cost of Shipping One Unit from the Warehouse to Project ($)

From/To Project 1 (6) Project 2 (7) Project 3 (8)

Warehouse 1 (4) 2 1 4
Warehouse 2 (5) 3 2 5
A Network Diagram of a Transportation Problem
A Network Diagram of a Transshipment Example
 Transshipment
Let, Xij = Quantity shipped from node i to node j Problems
The supply of each supply node is a constraint on the
quantity that can be shipped from that node. So, For node 1,
2 and 3

• Node 1: X14 + X15 = S1

• Node 2: X24 + X25 = S2
• Node 3: X34 + X35 = S3
 Transshipment
Let, Xij = Quantity shipped from node i to node j Problems
So, For node 4 and 5. Incoming and outgoing
quantities must be same.
Node 4: X14 + X24 + X34 = X46 + X47 + X48
That is = X14 + X24 + X34 - X46 - X47 - X48 = 0

Similarly for Node 5

X15 + X25 + X35 – X56 – X57 – X58 = 0
 Transshipment
Problems
Let, Xij = Quantity shipped from node i to node j
So, For node 6, 7 and 8. Demand must be satisfied
by the shipments from the transshipment points
• Node 6: X46 + X56 = D6
• Node 7: X47 + X57 = D7
• Node 8: X48 + X58 = D8

Minimize cost (Source to Transshipment + Transshipment to Destination)

The Assignment-type Problems

▪ Involve the matching or pairing of

two sets of items such as
o jobs and machines
o secretaries and reports
o lawyers and cases, and so forth
▪ Have different cost or time
requirements for different pairings
 Example of Assignment Problem
• A manager has prepared a table that shows the cost of
performing each of five jobs by each of five employees (see Table
in next slide).
• According to this table, job 1 will cost Rs.1500 if done by Raman,
Rs.2000 if it is done by Shama, and so on. The manager has
stated that his goal is to develop a set of job assignments that
will minimize the total cost of getting all four jobs done. It is
further required that the jobs be performed simultaneously, thus
requiring one job being assigned to each employee.
Numerical Example for the Assignment Problem
( cost in 00’ rupees)
 Example of Assignment Problem
In the past, to find the minimum-cost set of assignments, the
manager has resorted to listing all of the different possible
assignments (i.e., complete enumeration) for small problems such
as this one. But for larger problems, the manager simply guesses
because there are too many possibilities to try to list them.

For example, with a 5X5 table, there are 5! = 120 different

possibilities; but with, say, a 7X7 table, there are 7! = 5,040
possibilities.
 Mitsubishi Aircraft Company
• MAC builds planes for various companies around the world. The last stage in the

production process is to produce the jet engines and then to install them (a fast process)

in a completed airplane frame. The company has been working under some contracts to

deliver a considerable number of airplanes in the near future, and the production of

these jet engines for these planes must now be scheduled for next four months.

• To meet the dates of delivery the company must supply engines in the quantities

mentioned in table 1. Thus the cumulative number of engines produced at the end of

months 1,2,3 and 4 must be at least equal to 10,25,50 and 70 respectively. The resulting

monthly difference in the max no. that can be produced and the cost is also provided in

table 1.
 Mitsubishi Aircraft Company
• Because of the variations in the production costs it may well be worthwhile to
produce some of the engines a month or more before they are scheduled for
installation, and this possibilities are considered. The drawback is that these
engines must be stored until the scheduled installation @ $15k per month per
engine (refer to Table 1).The production manager wants a schedule developed
for the no. of engines to be produced in each of the 4 months so that the total
of the production and storage costs will be minimized.
Month Schedule installations Max Production Unit cost of Unit cost of storage
production (M$) (M$)
1 10 25 1.08 0.015
2 15 35 1.11 0.015
3 25 30 1.10 0.015
4 20 10 1.13