An Effective Alternative New Approach in Solving Transportation Problems

Abstract

The Transportation problem is one of the most colorful and demanding problems in the history of Operations Research. Many researchers have paid attention to solve the problem using different approaches. In certain approaches focused on finding an initial basic feasible solution and the other to find the optimal solution. It can be noticed that these methods have advantages and disadvantages. Out of all the methods that can be found in the literature, Northwest, Least Cost and Vogel's Approximation methods are the most prominent and renowned methods in finding an initial basic feasible solution. Also, the Modified Distribution (MODI) Method and Stepping Stone Method are the most acceptable methods in finding the optimal solution to the transportation problem. In this research paper, we propose an alternative method that finds the optimal or nearly optimal solution to the transportation problem. This method which is based on an iterative algorithm can be applied to balance as well as unbalanced transportation problems. It is also to be noticed that this method requires a minimum number of iterations to reach the optimality as compared to the other existing methods. Also, we have developed a new method of finding an optimal solution for both balanced and unbalanced transportation problems.