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General Structure of Transportation Problem

The document discusses the transportation problem, which seeks to minimize shipping costs when transporting goods from multiple origins to destinations while meeting supply and demand constraints. It can be formulated as a linear program to determine the optimal quantities shipped between origins and destinations. The transportation problem is solved in two phases: obtaining an initial feasible solution and then moving toward the optimal solution. Various methods are described for finding the initial feasible solution and solving each phase.

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Rishab Jain 2027203
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413 views9 pages

General Structure of Transportation Problem

The document discusses the transportation problem, which seeks to minimize shipping costs when transporting goods from multiple origins to destinations while meeting supply and demand constraints. It can be formulated as a linear program to determine the optimal quantities shipped between origins and destinations. The transportation problem is solved in two phases: obtaining an initial feasible solution and then moving toward the optimal solution. Various methods are described for finding the initial feasible solution and solving each phase.

Uploaded by

Rishab Jain 2027203
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Transportation Problem

BBA 104 1
Outline
What is a transportation problem ?
General structure of transportation problem.
Types of methods used in solving transportation
problem.

BBA 104 2
Transportation Problem
• The transportation problem seeks to minimize
the total shipping costs of transporting goods
from m origins or sources (each with a supply si)
to n destinations (each with a demand dj), when
the unit shipping cost from source, i, to a
destination, j, is cij.
• The problem is to determine the quantity to be
shipped from each factory to each warehouse so
as to maintain the supply and demand
requirements at the lowest transportation cost.
BBA 104 3
BBA 104 4
Transportation Problem
• LP Formulation
The linear programming formulation in terms of the
amounts shipped from the sources to the destinations, xij ,
can be written as:
Min cijxij (total transportation cost)
ij
s.t. xij < si for each source i (supply constraints)
j
xij = dj for each destination j (demand
constraints)
i
xij > 0 for all i and j (nonnegativity constraints)

BBA 104 5
Transportation Problem
• To solve the transportation problem by its special
purpose algorithm, it is required that the sum of the
supplies at the sources equal the sum of the
demands at the destinations. If the total supply is
greater than the total demand, a dummy
destination is added with demand equal to the
excess supply, and shipping costs from all sources
are zero. Similarly, if total supply is less than total
demand, a dummy source is added.
• When solving a transportation problem by its
special purpose algorithm, unacceptable shipping
routes are given a cost of +M (a large number).

BBA 104 6
Transportation Problem
• The transportation problem is solved in two phases:
– Phase I -- Obtaining an initial feasible solution
– Phase II -- Moving toward optimality
• In Phase I, the Minimum-Cost Procedure can be
used to establish an initial basic feasible solution
without doing numerous iterations of the simplex
method.
• In Phase II, the Stepping Stone, by using the MODI
method for evaluating the reduced costs may be
used to move from the initial feasible solution to
the optimal one.

BBA 104 7
Initial Tableau
• There are many method for finding the initial
tableau for the transportation problem which
are:
1. Northwest corner Method
2. Least cost Method
3. Vogel’s approximation method

BBA 104 8
summary
• Student is able to answer:
What is a transportation problem .
Different ways to solve the problem.

BBA 104 9

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