ASSIGNMENT PROBLEMS

Q1: Consider the problem of assigning five jobs to five men. The costs are given in the table
below. Determine the optimum assignment schedule?

1 2 3 4 5
A 8 4 2 6 1
B 0 9 5 5 4
C 3 8 9 2 6
D 4 3 1 0 3
E 9 5 8 9 5

Q2:A national car rental service has a surplus of one car in each of the cities 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
and a deficit of one car in each of the cities 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. The distance, in miles
between cities with a surplus and cities with a deficit are displayed in table below. How should
the cars be dispatched so as to minimize the total mileage travelled?

7 8 9 10 11 12
1 41 72 39 52 25 51
2 22 29 49 65 81 50
3 27 39 60 51 32 32
4 45 50 48 52 37 43
5 29 40 39 26 30 33
6 82 40 40 60 51 30

Q3:Six machines M1, M2,M3,M4,M5,M6 are to be located at six places P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6. The
cost of locating machines at different places is given in the table matrix. Find the optimal layout
out to minimize total cost of locating?

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
M1 20 23 18 10 16 20
M2 50 20 17 16 15 11
M3 60 30 40 55 8 7
M4 6 7 10 20 25 9
M5 18 19 28 17 60 70
M6 9 10 20 30 40 55

Q4: Find the minimum cost solution for 5×5 assignment problem whose coefficients are given
below:
 1 2 3 4 5
1 -2 -4 -8 -6 -1
2 0 -9 -5 -5 -4
3 -3 -8 -9 -2 -6
4 -4 -3 -1 0 -3
5 -9 -5 -8 -9 -5

Q5:A company has five jobs to be done. The following matrix shows the return in rupees of
assigning ith machine (i= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) to the jth job (j = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Assign the five jobs to the
five machines to maximize profit?

1 2 3 4 5
1 5 11 10 12 4
2 2 4 6 3 5
3 3 12 5 14 6
4 6 14 4 11 7
5 7 9 8 12 5

Q6:Find the minimum cost assignment for the following problem, explaining each of your steps:

Job
Workers I II III IV V
A 6 5 8 11 16
B 1 13 16 1 10
C 16 11 8 8 8
D 9 14 12 10 16
E 10 13 11 8 16

Q7: Certain equipment needs five repair jobs which have to be assigned to five mechanics. The
estimated time (in hours) that each mechanic requires to complete the repair job is given by the
following table:

Job
Mechanic J1 J2 J3 J4 J5
M1 2 9 2 7 1
M2 6 8 7 6 1
M3 4 6 5 3 1
M4 4 2 7 3 1
M5 5 3 9 5 1
Assuming that each mechanic can be assigned to only one job, determine the minimum time
assignment?
Q8: A student has 5 days to revise the subject before examination. The course is divided into 4
sections. He decides to devote a whole day to the study of some section so that he may study a
section for one day, two days, three days, etc. or no day at all. The expected grade points he will
get for alternative arrangements are as follows:

Study Course sections

days I II III IV
0 1 1 0 0
1 2 1 0 1
2 2 2 1 2
3 3 3 2 2
4 4 3 3 3
5 4 4 3 4
How should he distribute the days to various sections to maximize his grade point average?

Q9: Solve the assignment problem whose cost matrix is:

A B C D E
I 5 10 15 8 9
II 14 13 10 9 20
III 15 11 13 25 8
IV 9 19 12 8 6
V 7 21 12 13 24

Q10: The captain of a cricket team has to allot five middle batting positions to five batsmen.
The average runs scored by each batsman at these positions are as follows:

Batting positions
Batsman I II III IV V
P 40 40 35 25 50
Q 42 30 16 25 27
R 50 48 40 60 50
S 20 19 20 18 25
T 58 60 59 55 53
(i) Find the assignment of batsmen to positions, which would give the maximum number of
runs?

(ii) If another batsman ‘U’ with the following average runs in batting positions is added to the
team, should he be included to play in the team? If so, who will be replaced by him?

Batting position I II III IV V

Average runs 45 52 38 50 49