Transportation Problem

Transportation problems
Operational Research Level 4
Prepared by T.M.J.A.Cooray Department of Mathematics
MA 4020-Transportation problems
Introduction
Transportation
problem is a special kind of LP problem in which goods are transported from a set of sources to a set of destinations subject to the supply and demand of the source and the destination respectively, such that the total cost of transportation is minimized.
MA 4020-Transportation problems 2
Examples:
Sources factories, finished goods warehouses , raw materials houses, suppliers etc.
Destinations Markets Finished goods ware house ware raw materials ware houses, factories,
A schematic representation of a transportation problem is shown below

a1 a2
S1
D1 D2
b1 b2
ai
Si
Dj
bj
am
Sm
Dn
bn
m-
number of sources n- number of destinations ai- supply at source I bj demand at destination j cij cost of transportation per unit from source i to destination j Xij number of units to be transported from the source i to destination j
Destination j
1 S 1 c11 O 2 U R C E
i i ci1
c12
c1j
c1n
Supply a1 a2
ci2
cij
cin
ai
m Demand
cm1 cm2
b1 b2
cmn
bj bn
am
6
Transportation problem: represented as a LP model

Minimize : Z cij X ij
i 1 j 1 m n
subject to
X
j 1 m i 1 ij
ij
ai i 1,2,....,m bj j 1,2,.....,n
X ij 0 f or i 1,...m and j 1,..n

The ideal situation is shown below.,with equalities instead of inequalities. There are mn unknown variables and m+n-1 independent equations.
Minimize : Z cij X ij
i 1 j 1 m n
subject to
X
j 1 m i 1 ij
ij
ai i 1,2,....,m bj j 1,2,.....,n
X ij 0 f or i 1,...m and j 1,..n

When solving the transportation problem ,the number of possible routes should be m+n1. If it is <m+n-1, it is called a degenerate solution.
In such a case evaluation of the solution will not be possible. In order to evaluate the cells /routes (using the u-v method or the stepping stone method ) we need to imagine/introduce some used cells/routes carrying / transporting a very small quantity, say . That cell should be selected at the correct place. MA 4020-Transportation problems
Example: Consider a transportation problem involving 3 sources and 3 destinations.
Sourc e
Destination 1 2 3 20 10 15
10 25 200 12 30 400 9 18 400
Supply
200 300 500 1000
1 2 3
Deman d
10
Types of transportation problems

Balanced
transportation problems m
a
i 1
i
b
j 1
j
Unbalanced
transportation problems
a
i 1
b
j 1
Include a dummy source or a dummy destination having a supply d or demand d to convert it to a balanced transportation problem.
Where d= b j j 1
n
ai
i 1
or
a
i 1
b j respectively.
j 1
11
Example
Plant
1
W A1 R E2 H O3 U S4 E Supply
Deman d
10
5 15 20 20
2
10 5 15 20
3
15 14 13 30
15
2 7 10
9
4 15 8 25
25
30 20 30
12
Solution of transportation problems

Two
phases: First phase: Find an initial feasible solution 2nd phase: Check for optimality and improve the solution
13
Find an initial feasible solution

North
west corner method Least cost method Vogels approximation method
14
Checking for optimality

U-V
method Stepping-Stone method
15
Example-( having a degenerate solution)

Introduce to for phase 2.. 1 Destinations 2 3
Sources S1 3 Supply
2 6 3 5 20
3 5 4 7 30
25 15 20 10
5
S2
1
S3 S4 Demand
2 20
16
Transshipment models.
In
transportation problems ,shipments are sent directly from a particular source to a particular destination to minimize the total cost of shipments. It is sometimes economical if the shipment passes through some transient nodes in between the sources and destinations. In transshipment models it is possible for a shipment to pass through one or more intermediate nodes before it reaches its destination.
Transshipment problem with sources and destinations acting as transient nodes

Number
of starting nodes as well as the number of ending nodes is the sum of number of sources and the number of destinations of the original problem. m n
a
i 1
bj
j 1
Let be
B=
the buffer stock and it is added to all the starting nodes and all the ending nodes.
a1+B
..
aj+B
S1
S1 Sj
..
Sj
Sm D1
am+B
Sm B D1 b1+B
Dn
Dn bn+B
19
Destinations
D1,D2,.Dn are included as additional starting nodes mainly to act as transient nodes.they dont have any original supply and the supply of these nodes should be at least B. The sources S1,S2,.Sm are included as additional ending nodes mainly to act as transient nodes.these nodes are not having any original demand.But each of these transient nodes is assigned with B units as the demand value.
We
need to know the transshipment cost between the sources ,between the destinations and between sources and destinations .
21
Example
Supplies at the sources are 100,200,150 and 350 and Demand at the destinations are 350 and 450 respectively.
S1 S2 S3 S4 D1 D2
S1 S2
0 10
4 0
20 6
5 10
25 5
12 20
S3
S4 D1 D2
15
20 20 10
20
25 18 25
0
10 60 30
8
0 15 23
45
30 0 4
7
6 10 0
22
S1
S2
S3
S4
D1
D2
S1 0
S2 S3 S4 D1 D2 10 15 20 20 10
800
4
0 20 25 18 25
800
20
6 0 10 60 30
800
5
10 8 0 15 23
800
25
5 45 30 0 4
800+35 0=1150
12
20 7 6 10 0
800+45 0=1250
800+100=900
800+200=1000
800+150=950
800+350=1150 800
800
Same algorithms can be used to solve this transshipment problem.

Transportation problem with some transient nodes between sources and destination.
Consider
the case where the shipping items are first sent to intermediate finished goods ware houses from the supply points/factories and then to the destinations. To solve these problems the capacity at each transient node is made equal to B.
Where
B = ai b j
i 1 j 1
Example
Multi
plant organization has 3 plants and three market places. The goods from the plants are sent to market places through two intermediate finished goods warehouses. Cost of transportation per unit between plants and warehouses and warehouses to market places and also supply values of plants and demand values of the markets are shown in the table.
M1
P1 P2 P3 W1 W2
DEMAND
M2
40 15
M3 W1 W2
15 28 30 30 10 15 20 0
900
SUPPLY
10 25
200 300 400

900 900
30 0 35 25
900
Solution of the problem is same as Ordinary transportation Problems.

100 400 40 0
900
27

Transportation Problem

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Transportation Problem

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Transportation problems

Operational Research Level 4

Prepared by T.M.J.A.Cooray Department of Mathematics

A schematic representation of a transportation problem is shown below

Transportation problem: represented as a LP model

X ij 0 f or i 1,...m and j 1,..n

X ij 0 f or i 1,...m and j 1,..n

Example: Consider a transportation problem involving 3 sources and 3 destinations.

Types of transportation problems

Solution of transportation problems

Find an initial feasible solution

west corner method Least cost method Vogels approximation method

Checking for optimality

method Stepping-Stone method

Example-( having a degenerate solution)

Transshipment problem with sources and destinations acting as transient nodes

Same algorithms can be used to solve this transshipment problem.

200 300 400

Solution of the problem is same as Ordinary transportation Problems.

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