1.

Define Transportation Problem

(Industrial Engineering)
A programming problem that is concerned with the optimal pattern of the distribution of goods
from several points of origin to several different destinations, with the specified requirements at
each destination.
 Seeks the determination of a minimum cost transportation plan
 Single commodity
 A number of sources
 A number of destinations

2. Basic Concept of Transportation Problems Tabular Representation

Specifications:
 Level of supply at each source
 Amount of demand at each destination
 Transportation cost from each source to each destination
 One commodity
 A destination can receive its demand from one or more sources

The Objective:
 To find the amount to be shipped from each source to each destination such
that the total transportation cost is minimized

Types of the Transportation Problems:

 Linear transportation problem
 Cost on a route is directly proportional to the amount transported
 Otherwise – the problem is nonlinear

Terms:
 n sources
 k destinations
 s(i) – the amount of supply at source I
 d(j) – the demand at destination j
 cost(i,j) – the unit transportation cost between source i and destination j
 Xji – the amount transported from i to j
The Transportation Problem is given as:

∑ ∑ ∫ ( Xij )
n k
min i =1 j =1 ij
 ∑
k
j =1
Xij <= s (i ), i =1,2,....., n

∑
n
i =1
Xij >= d ( j ), j = 1,2,......., k

Xij >= 0, for i = 1,2,…,n and j = 1,2,…,k

3. Methods to Solve Transportation Problems

Linear transportation problem:
if
∫ ( Xij
ij
) =cost (ij ) * Xij

for all i and j, the problem is linear

Balanced transportation problem:

 The total supply equal the total demand

Balanced transportation problem:

∑
k
j =1
Xij = s (i ), i =1,2,....., n

∑
n
i =1
Xij = d ( j ), j = 1,2,....., k

Integer solution:
 If all s(i) and d(j) are integers
 all X(ij) are integers
 The number of positive integers among the X(ij) is at most n + k -1

Example:
 3 sources
 s(1) = 15, s(2) = 25, s(3) = 5
 4 destinations
 d(1) = 5, d(2) = 15, d(3) = 15, d(4) = 10
 Total supply and demand equal 45
The transportation cost:

10 0 20 11
12 7 9 20
0 14 16 18

The optimal solution:

5 15 15 10
15 0 5 0 10
25 0 10 15 0
5 5 0 0 0

Transportation Model Example

Problem Definition and Data

Problem: How many tons of wheat to transport from each grain elevator to each mill on a
monthly basis in order to minimize the total cost of transportation?

Data: Grain Elevator Supply Mill Demand

1. Kansas City 150 A. Chicago 200
2. Omaha 175 B. St. Louis 100
3. Des Moines 275 C. Cincinnati 300
Total 600 tons Total 600 tons
Transportation Model Example
Model Formulation
minimize Z = $6x1A + 8x1B + 10x1C + 7x2A + 11x2B + 11x2C + 4x3A + 5x3B + 12x3C
subject to x1A + x1B + x1C = 150
x2A + x2B + x2C = 175
x3A + x3B+ x3C = 275
x1A + x2A + x3A = 200
x1B + x2B + x3B = 100
x1C + x2C + x3C = 300
xij ≥ 0

Solution of the Transportation Model

Tableau Format
• Transportation problems are solved manually within a tableau format.
• Each cell in a transportation tableau is analogous to a decision variable that
indicates the amount allocated from a source to a destination.
• The supply and demand values along the outside rim of a tableau are called
rim values.

The Transportation Tableau

Solution of the Transportation Model

Solution Methods
• Transportation models do not start at the origin where all decision values are
zero; they must instead be given an initial feasible solution.
• Initial feasible solution determination methods include:
- Northwest corner method
- minimum cell cost method
- Vogel’s Approximation Method
• Methods for solving the transportation problem itself include:
- stepping-stone method and
 - modified distribution method.
4. Characteristics of Transportation Problems
• A product is transported from a number of sources to a number of destinations at the
minimum possible cost.
• Each source is able to supply a fixed number of units of the product, and each destination
has a fixed demand for the product.
• The linear programming model has constraints for supply at each source and demand at
each destination.
• All constraints are equalities in a balanced transportation model where supply equals
demand.
• Constraints contain inequalities in unbalanced models where supply does not equal
demand.

5. Special Cases of Transportation Problems

 The Northwest Corner Method
 The Minimum Cell Cost Method
 Vogel’s Approximation Method (VAM)
 The Stepping-Stone Solution Method
 The Modified Distribution Method (MODI)
 The Unbalanced Transportation Model
 Degeneracy