Transportation problem is a special kind of Linear Programming Problem (LPP) in which goods

are transported from a set of sources to a set of destinations subject to the supply and demand of
the sources and destination respectively such that the total cost of transportation is minimized. It
is also sometimes called as Hitchcock problem. In most cases, products or goods produced are
transported from the storage location (source) to the consumer (destination) at a minimum cost in
order to attain the desired profit.

Since transportation costs are not controllable, then minimizing total cost requires making the best
product routing decisions in distribution processes. The transportation problem is a type of linear
programming problem designed to minimize the cost of distributing a product from sources to the
destinations.

Types of Transportation problems:

Balanced: When both supplies and demands are equal then the problem is said to be a balanced
transportation problem.

Unbalanced: When the supply and demand are not equal then it is said to be an unbalanced
transportation problem. In this type of problem, either a dummy row or a dummy column is added
according to the requirement to make it a balanced problem. Then it can be solved similar to the
balanced problem.
Methods to Solve:

To find the initial basic feasible solution there are methods like:

1. Graphical Method
2. Simplex Tableau
3. North West Corner Cell Method.
4. Least Call Cell Method.
5. Vogel’s Approximation Method (VAM).

There are several kinds of transportation methods which all serve the purpose of minimization of
cost. In this section, the transportation problems which involve two sources (S1 and S2) and two
destinations (D1 and D2) will be studied.

Also, transportation problems which involve two sources (S1 and S2) and three destinations (D1,
D2, and D3) are studied as illustrated in Figure 1(a) and Figure 1(b), respectively.

Basic structure of transportation problem:

In the below table, D1, D2, D3 and D4 are the destinations where the products/goods are to be
delivered from different sources S1, S2, S3 and S4. Si is the supply from the source Oi. dj is the
demand of the destination Dj. Cij is the cost when the product is delivered from source Si to
destination Dj.
Examples:

1. A manufacturer of certain products has two warehouses H1 and H2 for storing her products.
She stores 80 units of the products in H1 and 70 units in H2. The customers C1 and C2 placed
orders for 35 and 60 units in H1 and H2, respectively. The transportation cost in Tanzanian
shillings for each unit is as shown in the following table: Formulate a linear programming
problem for minimizing the total transportation cost.

2. Two timber production centres, A and B, are capable of manufacturing 120 and 100 pieces of
timber each week, respectively. Three customers U, V, and W placed weekly orders of 90, 70,
and 60 pieces of timber from the timber production centres, respectively. The transportation
costs in Tanzanian shillings are shown in the following table:

Formulate a linear programming problem for minimization of the cost of transportation.

3. Two suppliers of sweets, F and G, are capable of supplying not more than 40 kg and 35 kg of
sweets, respectively. The supplier is required to supply sweets to three day care school, X, Y,
and Z. The daily school requirements are 30 kg, 25 kg, and 20 kg for schools X, Y, and Z,
respectively. The distance in kilometres from the suppliers to the respective hotels are tabulated
in the following table:
 If the transportation costs are proportional to the distance travelled per each kilometre,
formulate a linear programming problem to minimize the transportation cost for the sweet
supplier.
4. Mariam has two warehouses, one in Kigoma and one in Mtwara. She wants to transport tonnes
of goods to Singida and Moshi. She needs to transport 60 tonnes and 40 tonnes of goods to
Singida and Moshi, respectively. The warehouses at Kigoma and Mtwara contain 80 and 60
tonnes of goods, respectively. The transportation costs in Tanzanian shillings per tonne of
goods are shown in the following table: How should the transportation of tonnes of goods be
done at a minimum cost?

5. A supplier of rice has stores at Mbagala and Ubungo. Three customers located at Mbezi,
Manzese, and Kinyerezi order sacks of rice weekly. The customer’s weekly requirements are
15, 15, and 12 sacks of rice, respectively. The stores' output capacities at Mbagala and Ubungo
are 40 and 36 sacks of rice, respectively. The cost of transportation per kilogram in Tanzanian
shillings are shown in the following table:

How many sacks should be transported from each store to each customer at the minimum cost?
Find the minimum transportation cost.
6. Three jogging clubs, C1, C2, and C3 need 20, 15, and 20 sets of equipment, respectively. The
clubs are sponsored by two benefactors B1 and B2 who have only 25 and 30 set of equipment,
respectively. The transportation costs per set of equipment in Tanzania shillings are shown in
the following table:

a) Determine how the benefactors should supply the equipments to each of the jogging clubs
at a minimum cost. (b) Find the minimum cost.