transportation problem in operational research

The model is useful for making strategic decisions involved in selecting optimum transportation routes so as to allocate the production of various plants to several warehouses or distribution centers. In addition, we must also know the location, to find the cost of transporting one unit of commodity from the place of origin to the destination.

To achieve this objective, we must know the quantity of available supplies and the quantities demanded. The objective is to satisfy the demand at destinations from the supply constraints at the minimum transportation cost possible. In other words, transportation problems deal with the transportation of a single product manufactured at different plants (supply origins) to a number of different warehouses (demand destinations). The goods are transported from a set of sources (e.g., factory) to a set of destinations (e.g., warehouse) to meet the specific requirements. It helps in solving problems on distribution and transportation of resources from one place to another. Transportation problem is a particular class of linear programming, which is associated with day-to-day activities in our real life and mainly deals with logistics.

Transportation problem in operational research