Transportation

Problem
Presented by: Devki .S.
Adila Rawnaq
What is Transportation Problem ??
The transportation problem is a distribution-type problem, the main
goal of which is to decide how to transfer goods from various
sending locations (also known as origins) to various receiving
locations (also known as destinations) with minimal costs or
maximum profit. As long as the number of origins and destinations
is low, this is a relatively easy decision. But as the numbers grow, this
becomes a complicated linear programming problem.
Steps involved in solving
Transportation problem is a special type of linear programming
problems that involves the following steps:
1) Finding an initial feasible solution.
2) Testing the solution for optimality.
3) Improves the solution when it is not optimal.
4) Repeating steps (ii) and (iii) until the optimal solution is
obtained.
Types
• Balanced transportation problem.

• Unbalanced transportation problem.

Phases of transportation problem
• Phase 1 – Initial basic feasible solution

• Phase 2 – Optimal basic solution

Initial Basic Feasible Solution
There are three methods of solving transportation problems:
• North-West corner method
• Vogel’s approximation method
• Least-cost method
North West Corner Method
• The North-West Corner Rule is a method adopted to compute
the initial feasible solution of the transportation problem. The
name North-west corner is given to this method because the
basic variables are selected from the extreme left corner.

• Most systematic and easiest method for obtaining the solution.

Least Cost Method
• In Least Cost Method the allocation begins with the cell which
has the minimum cost. The lower cost cells are chosen over the
higher-cost cell with the objective to have the least cost of
transportation.
• This method is considered to produce more optimal results than
the North-west Corner because it considers the shipping cost
while making the allocation, whereas the North-West corner
method only considers the availability and supply requirement
and allocation begin with the extreme left corner, irrespective of
the shipping cost.
Vogel’s Approximation Method
• The Vogel approximation method is an iterative procedure for
computing a basic feasible solution of a transportation problem.
• This method is preferred over the two methods discussed in the
previous sections, because the initial basic feasible solution
obtained by this method is either optimal or very close to the
optimal solution.
• This method is a little complex than the previous methods.
THANK YOU