PROBLEMS ON ASSIGNMENTMODELS (HUNGARIAN METHOD)

SIMPLE PROBLEMS:
1) A production unit has four jobs A, B, C and D which can be manufactured on each of the four
machines P, Q, R and S. The processing cost of each job on each machine is given in the table
below:
Jobs Machines
P Q R S
A 31 25 33 29
B 25 24 23 21
C 19 21 23 24
D 38 36 34 40
To achieve minimum processing cost, which job will you process on which machine?
2) A department has four subordinates and four tasks for completion. The subordinates differ
in their capabilities and tasks differ in their work contents and intrinsic difficulties. His
estimate of time for each subordinate and each task is given in the matrix below:
Tasks Subordinates
1 2 3 4
A 17 25 26 20
B 28 27 23 25
C 20 18 17 14
D 28 25 23 19
How should the tasks be assigned to minimize requirements of manhours?
3) A workshop has four machines and four tasks for completion. Each of the machines can
perform each of the four tasks. Time taken at each of the machines to complete each task is
given in the matrix below:
How should the tasks be assigned to machines to minimize requirements of machine hours?
Tasks Machines
A B C D
1 51 77 49 55
2 32 34 59 68
3 37 44 70 54
4 55 55 58 55

SPECIAL CASES IN ASSIGNMENT:

A) MAXIMISATION OBJECTIVE: Assignment model is essentially a minimisation technique. To
solve a problem of maximisation objective, all elements in the matrix are subtracted from
the largest element in the entire matrix including itself.
1) A pharmaceutical company has four branches, one each at city A, B, C and D. A branch
manager is to be appointed one at each city, out of four candidates P, Q, R and S. The
monthly business depends upon the city and the effectiveness of the branch manager in
that city.

Manager City
A B C D
 (monthly business in Rs. Lakhs)
P 11 11 9 9
Q 13 16 11 10
R 12 17 13 8
S 16 14 16 12
Which manager should be appointed at which city so as to get maximum total monthly
business?
2) Four machines can do four jobs. The output per machine in units is given below.
Determine the job machine combination for maximum profit.
Machine Jobs
1 2 3 4
M1 60 40 60 70
M2 20 60 50 70
M3 20 30 40 60
M4 30 10 30 40

B) UNBALANCED ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM: It is one in which number of tasks and facilities do

not equal each other (number of rows ≠number of columns). To solve an unbalanced
assignment problem, it has to be balanced by adding dummy task/ facility or tasks/ facilities
(as the case may be) with zero costs.
1) Following is the information about cost of performing different jobs on different
machines. Find the optimum assignment.
Machines jobs
1 2 3
A 17 8 11
B 21 14 7
C 10 7 6
D 10 18 17
2) Three machines are to be installed in a factory. The manager has found four suitable
locations to install them. The cost of installation is as under:
Machines places
1 2 3 4
X 18 24 28 32
Y 8 13 17 19
Z 10 15 19 22
Determine the optimum installation plan.
3) In a hospital, 4 patients need the services of a private room on a certain day. There
are 5 rooms available to the patient. The room charges differ according to their
location and services available inside the room and the class of the patient. How
should the rooms be allotted so that the hospital earns maximum total room rent?
Following table gives the room charges in rupees per day:
Rooms patients
1 2 3 4
P 280 390 580 220
Q 450 550 630 400
 R 380 390 820 530
S 730 420 400 450
T 580 350 570 560

C) PROHIBITED ASSIGNMENTS: An assignment problem involving restrictions in allocation are

called Prohibited Assignments. Restrictions can be due to space, size of the job, process
capability of the machine, technical difficulties etc. Do not permit assignment of job to a
particular facility. This difficulty can be solved by assigning highest cost ‘M’ or α(infinity) to
the corresponding cell. By assigning highest cost it will never be selected.
1) A gear manufacturing co. requires 2000 units per month of each of the six types of
gears. Six hobbing machines are available to process these gears. The gears differ in their
work contents- gear with, number of teeth, module etc. And the machines differ in their
capabilities-speeds, feeds and ability to take depth of cut. The production control
department has prepared the machine wise cost matrix as under:
Gear Hobbing Machines
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 15 18 13 10 - 14
2 20 16 12 14 18 15
3 19 16 15 - 19 20
4 30 - 42 38 35 36
5 6 8 10 12 9 10
6 13 12 16 14 15 18
Find the optimum assignment schedule.
2) A manager wants to assign 4 different jobs to 4 assistants from his experience he knows
that two assistants are not efficient enough to do two specific jobs. This is indicated by X
in the cost matrix. Determine the optimal assignment plan from the following matrix:
Assistants jobs (costs in hundred rupees)
1 2 3 4
A1 12 3 X 5
A2 16 9 6 2
A3 5 2 5 X
A4 5 13 5 1

D) ALTERNATIVE OR MULTIPLE OPTIMAL SOLUTION: Alternative optimal solution exist in an

assignment problem when the final assignment contains more than required number of
zero elements. It implies that there are more than one optimal solution with same total cost
assignment.
1) A company has four jobs and four machines are available. Following is the matrix
showing cost of job machine combination:
Jobs machines
1 2 3 4
A 40 50 60 65
B 30 38 46 48
C 25 33 41 43
D 39 45 51 59
 How should the tasks be assigned to the machines to minimise total cost?

MISCELLANEOUS PROBLEMS
1) Following is the machine-place cost matrix:
Machines Places
A B C D E
L 19 21 25 20 21
M 27 24 - 25 24
N - 24 27 24 20
O 22 16 20 15 16
Find the optimal assignment and the corresponding cost.

2) The owner of a small machine shop has four machinists available to assign jobs for the
day. Five jobs have been offered with the expected profit in rupees for each machinist-
job-combination as follows:
Machinist Jobs
A B C D E
1 6.2 7.8 5 10.1 8.2
2 7.1 8.4 6.1 7.3 5.9
3 8.7 9.2 11.1 7.1 8.1
4 4.8 6.4 8.7 7.7 8
Find the assignment of the machines to the jobs.

3) The production costs of products P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5 per unit made on machines M1,
M2, M3, M4 and M5 are tabulated below:
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
M1 50 80 30 40 45
M2 60 30 40 40 50
M3 40 40 50 45 35
M4 35 40 30 35 50
M5 40 45 50 45 45
Selling price per unit are as follows: P1= Rs. 80, P2= Rs. 90, P3=Rs. 105, P4= Rs. 70
and P5=Rs. 65.
Determine which product should be made on which machine to realise maximum
profit.

4) DK Oil Mills has four plants (P1, P2, P3 and P4) each of which can manufacture any of the
four products (AF, BI, FM and IT). The manufacturing costs differ from plant to plant and
so do the sales revenue. The revenue and cost details are as under:
Plant Sales revenue (Rs. In Crores) Manufacturing costs (Rs. In crores)
AF BI FM IT AF BI FM IT
P1 70 88 69 82 59 70 55 71
P2 80 90 71 94 65 73 55 79
P3 75 87 73 80 62 72 59 68
 P4 78 85 74 89 65 74 58 76
Suggest which product should be manufactured on which plant to maximise profit.

5) Four sales managers (A, B, C & D) are to be assigned to four sales zones (P, Q, R & S). The
zones differ in their sales potential and sales manager differ in their capabilities. It is
estimated that a bright sales manager operating in each sale zone would bring in the
following monthly sales.
Zone P= Rs. 150 lakhs
Zone Q= Rs. 120 lakhs
Zone R= Rs. 100 lakhs
Zone S= Rs. 80 lakhs.
Since sales manager differ in their capabilities, their effectiveness on a 10 point scale (on
which a bright manager is rated as 10) has been assessed as follows:
Sales manager A= 7 points
Sales manager B= 5 points
Sales manager C= 5 points
Sales manager D= 4 points.
Suggest the optimal allocation of sales managers to sales zones to maximise monthly
business.

6) A solicitor’s firm employs typists on hourly price-rate basis for their daily work. There are
5 typists available and their charges and speeds differ. According to an earlier
understanding , only one job is given to one typist and the typist is paid for full hour
even if he works for a fraction of an hour.
Typist Rate per hour (Rs.) No. Of pages job No. Of
Typed per hour Pages
A 5 12 P 190
B 6 14 Q 170
C 3 8 R 145
D 4 10 S 190
E 4 11 T 180
Find the least cost of allocation for the aforesaid data.

7) A manufacturer has 5 machines and 5 workers working on them. The output of each
worker depends on his skill as well as the machine he is using. The output for worker-
machine combination is given below.
Workers Machines
1 2 3 4 5
1 20 23 27 32 36
2 19 23 29 34 40
3 23 28 35 39 34
4 21 24 31 37 42
5 22 28 31 36 41
a) Find the worker-machine combination that maximises the total output.
b) If the profit per unit of output is Rs. 10, find the total profit.
 PROBLEMS ON TRANSPORTATION MODELS
PART I: INITIAL FEASIBLE SOLUTION (NWCR, LCM & VAM)

A) SIMPLE PROBLEMS:
1) Plants Warehouse
P Q R Avail.
(cost per unit Rs.)
A 13 11 8 30
B 14 16 13 40
C 12 10 12 30
Reqd. 45 35 20
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.

2) Plants Warehouse
P Q R S Avail.
(cost per unit Rs.)
x 19 30 50 10 7
y 70 30 40 60 9
z 40 8 70 20 18
reqd. 5 8 7 14
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.

3) Factories Warehouse
P Q R Avail.
(cost per unit Rs.)
x 16 14 11 50
y 13 18 17 40
z 14 14 12 60
reqd. 20 95 35
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM

4) Bus Depot Starting points

P Q R Avail.
(distance in kms.)
x 2 8 4 25
y 3 7 3 10
Reqd. 15 8 12
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM

5) Factories markets
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Avail.
(cost per unit Rs.)
x 2 11 10 3 7 4
y 1 4 7 2 1 8
 z 3 9 4 8 12 9
reqd. 3 3 4 5 6
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM

B) SPECIAL CASES IN TRANSPORTATION:

i) MAXIMISATION OBJECTIVE: Transportation model is essentially a minimisation
technique. To solve a problem of maximisation objective, all elements in the matrix
are subtracted from the largest element in the entire matrix including itself.
1) Factories Showrooms
Ranchi Delhi Lucknow Capacity
(Profit in Rs. Per unit)
Mumbai 290 280 300 200
Kolkatta 250 270 230 200
Kanpur 350 370 380 200
Reqmnts. 150 300 150
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.

ii) UNBALANCED PROBLEM: It is one in which total supply is greater than total demand
(excess supply) or total demand is greater than total supply (excess demand). In
either case a dummy row or a dummy column is added (depending upon the case)
with zero costs.
1) Warehouse consumption centres capacity
1 2 3 4
(Cost of shipping one unit in Rs.)
1 100 120 90 60 700
2 70 30 70 70 600
3 60 60 90 110 900
Demand 600 400 600 200
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.
2) Plant markets supply
1 2 3 4
(cost of transportation in Rs./ unit)
A 6 4 9 1 40
B 20 6 11 3 40
C 7 1 0 14 50
D 7 1 12 6 90
Demand 90 30 50 30
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.

iii) PROHIBITED ASSIGNMENTS: A transportation problem involving restrictions in

allocation are called Prohibited Assignments. Restrictions can be due to restriction
on routes etc. Do not permit transportation of units from plant to the warehouse.
This difficulty can be solved by assigning highest cost ‘M’ or α(infinity) to the
corresponding cell. By assigning highest cost it will never be allotted any units.
 1) Plant Warehouse capacity
1 2 3
Freight cost per unit
A 15 - 30 120
B - 24 12 200
C 25 15 - 180
Demand 200 150 150
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.
2) Factories Depots Capacity
W1 W2 W3 W4 W5
F1 7 10 8 8 4 150
F2 3 16 10 9 0 30
F3 8 - 5 1 18 120
F4 3 4 0 - 6 130
Demand 80 60 20 210 80
Determine the initial feasible solution using NWCR, LCM and VAM.

PART II: OPTIMAL SOLUTION (MODIFIED DISTRIBUTION METHOD)

Solve all the above problems to obtain the optimal solution.

MISCELLANEOUS PROBLEMS
1) A company has three plants A, B and C with a capacity of 30, 40 and 30 units of a single
product per month. It markets its product through three warehouses P, Q and R with
requirements of 45, 35 and 20 units per month respectively.
The cost of transporting one unit of the product from any plant A, B and C to any
warehouse P, Q and R is given in the following table:
Plants Warehouse
P Q R
(cost per unit Rs.)
A 13 11 8
B 14 16 13
C 12 10 12
How should the units be transported to minimize the total cost. (Use VAM to
determine the initial feasible solution)
2) A sugar co. has three factories that transport sugar to four distribution centres. The
monthly production at each factory and demand at each centre along with the
transportation cost per quintal are as follows:
Factory Distribution centre Production
W X Y Z
A 10 8 5 4 7000
B 7 9 15 8 8000
C 6 10 14 8 10000
 Demand 6000 6000 8000 5000
Formulate the transportation problem and find out the minimum transportation cost.
3) A firm has three plants, P1, P2 and P3 and three warehouses W1, W2 and W3. The
transportation costs per unit along each route with capacity of each plant and
requirement of each warehouse is as under:
Plant Warehouse Capacity
W1 W2 W3
P1 40 70 90 300
P2 12 80 30 400
P3 60 90 45 200
Reqmnt. 300 300 300
How should the units be transported to minimise transport cost? Use NWCR to
determine the initial feasible solution. (DEGENERACY)
4) A two factory-three warehouses balanced problem on transportation of a company is as
under:
Plants Warehouses Capacity
P Q R
1 12 18 14 250
2 13 17 13 100
Demand 150 80 120
Determine the optimal solution. Use VAM to determine the initial feasible solution.
(ALTERNATE OPTIMAL SOLUTION)
5) A firm has three factories located at Pune, Goa and Patna which produce the same
product. There are four major distribution centres situated in Delhi, Bombay, Madras
and Calcutta. The daily production in terms of units produced varies from factory to
factory as under:
Factory : Pune Goa Patna
Production Units : 30 40 50
Average daily demand at the distribution centres is as follows:
Centre : Delhi Bombay Madras Calcutta
Demand units : 35 28 32 25
The transport cost from each factory to distribution centre is as under:
Pune Goa Patna
Delhi 6 5 8
Bombay 5 11 9
Madras 8 9 7
Calcutta 5 7 13
Determine the optimal solution.
6) A company has three factories that supply to four marketing areas. The transportation
cost of shopping from each factory to each marketing area is as under. Factory capacities
and requirements are also given in the table:
Factory Marketing area Capacity
1 2 3 4
A 19 30 50 10 1600
B 70 30 40 60 1200
 C 40 8 70 20 1700
Reqmt. 1000 1500 800 1200
Find the initial feasible solution by VAM method. Also find the optimal solution.
6) A hotel corporation has three restaurants around the country all of which use disposable
cups for drinking. Three suppliers have been invited to submit their bids. Their bids are
as follows:
Suppliers price in Rs. (per 100 cups) Capacity p.a.
A 9 30000
B 10 70000
C 11 135000
The cost of transportation (in Rs. Per 100 cups) varies from supplier to each restaurant is
as follows:
From Restaurant
1 2 3
A 2 4 1
B 5 3 6
C 3 2 7
The annual requirements of cups for three restaurants are 30000, 60000 and 120000
respectively.
How many cups should be purchased from each supplier for each restaurant? (Use VAM
to determine the initial feasible solution)
7) A co.has three factories manufacturing the same product and five sole selling agents in
different parts of the country. Production costs differ from factory to factory and sales
price differ from agency to agency. Find out the production and distribution schedule
most profitable to the company. Given the following data:
Factory→ 1 2 3 Sale price p.u. demand
Production→ 20 22 18
Costs (Rs.)
Agency (Transportation cost p.u.)
1 3 9 4 30 80
2 1 7 5 32 100
3 5 8 3 31 75
4 7 3 2 34 45
5 4 6 7 29 125
Capacity 150 200 125
8) There are three canning factories around the state which need baskets of strawberries.
Three orchards supply these to the factories. Their costs of supplying these baskets are
as follows:
Orchard price in Rs. Per basket capacity p.a.
A 19 300
B 20 700
C 21 1350
Cost of transportation (per basket in Rs.) from each orchard to each factory is as follows:
X Y Z
A 2 4 1
 B 5 3 6
C 3 2 7
The annual requirements of three factories is 300, 600 and 1200 baskets respectively.
How many baskets should be purchased from each orchard to each factory to minimise
total cost. (Note: Find initial feasible solution using VAM).
9) Markets→1 2 3 Availability
Cities (Profit in Rs. Per unit)
C1 29 28 30 2000
C2 25 27 23 2000
C3 35 37 38 2000
Demand 1500 3000 1500
Formulate the problem, determine the initial feasible solution using VAM and find the
optimal solution.
10) Age groups→ 16-20 21-25 26-35 36 and above available
Media (cost per exposure according to media)
1 12 7 10 10 40
2 10 9 12 10 30
3 14 12 9 12 20
Reqd. 30 25 15 10
Solve the above as a transportation problem to minimise total cost.
11) Joe is the production supervisor at an electronics company at Bhiwandi. On arriving at
work he finds the following information:
Department Units available Department Units required
A 18 G 14
B 27 H 12
C 21 I 23
J 17
Time taken to move a unit from one department to another is as follows:
From To Minutes reqd.
A G 13
A H 25
B G 18
B H 23
B I 14
B J 9
A I 12
A J 21
C G 23
C H 15
C I 12
C J 13
Find the distribution plan using it as a transportation problem so as to minimise the total
time required.