Lecture 5 Transportation Model and its variant

Introduction:
The transportation model is a special class of linear programs that deal with shipping a
commodity from sources (e.g. factories) to destinations (e.g. warehouses). The objective
is to determine the shipping schedule that minimizes the total shipping cost while
satisfying supply and demand limits. The application of the transportation model can be
extended to other areas of operation, including inventory control, employment scheduling
and personal assignment.
Example of a transportation problem:
cold drin! manufacturing concern has m plants located in m different cities of "ngland.
The total supply potential of the manufactured product is absorbed by n retail shops in n
different cities of the country. #etermine the transportation schedule that minimizes the
total cost of transporting cold drin!s from various plant locations to various retail shops.
Mathematical Formulation of the problem:
$et us identify the m plant locations (origins) as %&, %', (, %m and the n retail shops
(destinations) as #&, #', (, #n respectively. $et ai )*, i + &, ', (, m be the amount of
cold drin!s available at the ith plant %i and let the amount of cold drin!s re,uired at the
jth retail shop #j be bj ) *, j + &, ', (, n.
$et the cost of transporting one unit of cold drin!s from plant %i to retail shop #j be -ij (i
+ &, ', (, m . j + &, ', (, n). if nij ) * be the amount of cold drin!s to be transported
from origin %i to destination #j, then the problem is to determine xij so as to
/inimise
0 +
= =
n
j
ij ij
m
i
c x
& &
1ubject to the constraints:
n ..., ', , & ,
&

=
= =
m
j
i ij
i a x
n ..., ', , & ,
&

=
= =
m
i
i ij
j b x
and xij 2 * for all i and j.
&
The above formulation loo!s li!e a $3 problem. This special $33 will be called a
transportation problem (T3)
The Transportation Table (TP
1ince the T3 is just a special case of a general $33, the application of simplex method
would no doubt, give an optimum solution to the problem. 4owever, fortunately, a
simplex li!e method for solving such problems have been developed. 5henever, it is
possible to place the given $3 in the transportation framewor!, it is far simple to solve it
by the Transportation /odel than by simplex method. 6nstead of using simplex table, the
major computational vehicle in this method will be a different sort of table called the
Transportation Table. specimen of the transportation table for an m7origin, n7
destination T3 is given below:
#& #' #8 #9
-&& -&' ( -&n

-'& -'' ...

-'n
.
.
.
.

-m& -m' (

-mn
Example of formulatin! a transportation problem:
dairy firm has two plants located in a metropolitan city. #aily cold drin!s
production at each plant is as follows:
3lant & 7 : million litres
3lant ' 7 &; million litres
"ach day the firm must fulfill the needs of its three distribution centers. /inimum
re,uirement at each centre is as follows:
#istribution center & 7 < million litres
#istribution center ' 7 && million litres
#istribution center 8 7 8 million litres.
-ost of shipping one million litres of cold drin!s from each plant to each distribution
centre is given in the following table in hundred of rupees:
'
1hipping -ost
3lant #istribution -entre
===============
& ' 8
=================================
& ' 8 8
' ' 9 '
=================================
The dairy firm wishes to decide as to how much should be the shipment from which
plant to which distribution centre so that the cost of shipment may be minimum.
>ou are re,uired to formulate this problem as a linear programming problem.
Formulation as an LP problem:
1tep&: The !ey decision to be made is to determine how much ,uantity of cold drin!s
from which plant to which distribution centre be shipped so as to satisfy the
restrictions and minimize cost.
1tep ': $et xij be the decision variables (,uantities to be found) when the cold drin! is
shipped from plant i (i + &, ') to distribution centre (j + &, ', 8).
1tep 8: ?easible alternatives are the sets of values of x&& , x&', x&8 , x'&, x'', x'8 where
x&& , x&', x&8 , x'&, x'', x'8 2 *.
1tep 9: The objective is to minimize the cost of transportation, that is, to minimize
0 + ('x&& @ 8x&' @ 8x&8) @ ('x'& @ 9x'' @ 'x'8)
1tep ;: -onstraints are on the availability of cold drin!s at the two plants and its
re,uirements at the 8 distribution centres. These are:
&. vailability or supply : x&& @ x&' @ x&8 + :
x'& @ x'' @ x'8 + &;
'. Ae,uirements or demand: x&& @ x'& + <
x&' @ x'' + &&
x&8 @ x'8 + 8
8
4ence the transportation problem is:
9
/inimize
0 + 'x&& @ 8x&' @ 8x&8 @ 'x'& @ 9x'' @ 'x'8
1ubject to
x&& @ x&' @ x&8 + :
x'& @ x'' @ x'8 + &;
x&& @ x'& + <
x&' @ x'' + &&
x&8 @ x'8 + 8
x&& , x&', x&8 , x'&, x'', x'8 2 *.