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Question
What is the Assignment problem?
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Solution
Suppose that we have ‘m1 jobs to be performed on ‘n’ machines.
The cost of assigning each job to each machine is Cij (i = 1, 2, … n and j = 1, 2, … , n).
Our objective is to assign the different jobs to the different machines (one job per machine) to minimize the overall cost.
This is known as assignment problem.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Five wagons are available at stations 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These are required at 5 stations I, II, III, IV, and V. The mileage between various stations are given in the table below. How should the wagons be transported so as to minimize the mileage covered?
| I | II | III | IV | V | |
| 1 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 11 |
| 2 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 14 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| 4 | 18 | 9 | 12 | 17 | 15 |
| 5 | 11 | 6 | 14 | 19 | 10 |
Five different machines can do any of the five required jobs, with different profits resulting from each assignment as shown below:
| Job | Machines (Profit in ₹) | ||||
| A | B | C | D | E | |
| 1 | 30 | 37 | 40 | 28 | 40 |
| 2 | 40 | 24 | 27 | 21 | 36 |
| 3 | 40 | 32 | 33 | 30 | 35 |
| 4 | 25 | 38 | 40 | 36 | 36 |
| 5 | 29 | 62 | 41 | 34 | 39 |
Find the optimal assignment schedule.
Fill in the blank :
When an assignment problem has more than one solution, then it is _______ optimal solution.
Choose the correct alternative:
Assignment Problem is special case of ______
In an assignment problem if number of rows is greater than number of columns, then dummy ______ is added
State whether the following statement is True or False:
In assignment problem, if number of columns is greater than number of rows, then a dummy row is added
A departmental head has four subordinates and four tasks to be performed. The subordinates differ in efficiency and the tasks differ in their intrinsic difficulty. His estimates of the time each man would take to perform each task is given below:
| Tasks | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Subordinates | P | 8 | 26 | 17 | 11 |
| Q | 13 | 28 | 4 | 26 | |
| R | 38 | 19 | 18 | 15 | |
| S | 9 | 26 | 24 | 10 | |
How should the tasks be allocated to subordinates so as to minimize the total manhours?
Choose the correct alternative:
Number of basic allocation in any row or column in an assignment problem can be
A dairy plant has five milk tankers, I, II, III, IV and V. Three milk tankers are to be used on five delivery routes A, B, C, D and E. The distances (in kms) between the dairy plant and the delivery routes are given in the following distance matrix.
| I | II | III | IV | V | |
| A | 150 | 120 | 175 | 180 | 200 |
| B | 125 | 110 | 120 | 150 | 165 |
| C | 130 | 100 | 145 | 160 | 170 |
| D | 40 | 40 | 70 | 70 | 100 |
| E | 45 | 25 | 60 | 70 | 95 |
How should the milk tankers be assigned to the chilling center so as to minimize the distance travelled?
A job production unit has four jobs P, Q, R, S which can be manufactured on each of the four machines I, II, III and IV. The processing cost of each job for each machine is given in the following table :
| Job | Machines (Processing cost in ₹) |
|||
| I | II | III | IV | |
| P | 31 | 25 | 33 | 29 |
| Q | 25 | 24 | 23 | 21 |
| R | 19 | 21 | 23 | 24 |
| S | 38 | 36 | 34 | 40 |
Complete the following activity to find the optimal assignment to minimize the total processing cost.
Solution:
Step 1: Subtract the smallest element in each row from every element of it. New assignment matrix is obtained as follows :
| Job | Machines (Processing cost in ₹) |
|||
| I | II | III | IV | |
| P | 6 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| Q | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| R | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| S | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
Step 2: Subtract the smallest element in each column from every element of it. New assignment matrix is obtained as above, because each column in it contains one zero.
Step 3: Draw minimum number of vertical and horizontal lines to cover all zeros:
| Job | Machines (Processing cost in ₹) |
|||
| I | II | III | IV | |
| P | 6 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| Q | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| R | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| S | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
Step 4: From step 3, as the minimum number of straight lines required to cover all zeros in the assignment matrix equals the number of rows/columns. Optimal solution has reached.
Examine the rows one by one starting with the first row with exactly one zero is found. Mark the zero by enclosing it in (`square`), indicating assignment of the job. Cross all the zeros in the same column. This step is shown in the following table :
| Job | Machines (Processing cost in ₹) |
|||
| I | II | III | IV | |
| P | 6 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| Q | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| R | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| S | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
Step 5: It is observed that all the zeros are assigned and each row and each column contains exactly one assignment. Hence, the optimal (minimum) assignment schedule is :
| Job | Machine | Min.cost |
| P | II | `square` |
| Q | `square` | 21 |
| R | I | `square` |
| S | III | 34 |
Hence, total (minimum) processing cost = 25 + 21 + 19 + 34 = ₹`square`
