A New Approach of Finding an Initial Basic Feasible Solution in the Transportation Problem

Abstract

The transportation problem arises frequently in planning for the distribution of goods and services from several supply locations to several demand locations. Typically, the quantity of goods available at each supply location (origin) is limited, and the quantity of goods needed at each of several demand locations (destinations) is known. The usual objective in a transportation problem is to minimize the cost of shipping goods from the origins to the destinations. In the literature several methods are proposed for solving initial basic feasible solution of transportation problem. Finding an initial basic feasible solution is the prime requirement to obtain an optimal solution for the transportation problems. An optimal solution refers to a solution in which no more transportation routes can manage to reduce the total transportation cost. In this article, Range Allocation Method (RAM) was proposed as a new approach of finding the initial basic feasible solution for the transportation problems.