American University in Cairo School of Science and Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Dept.

MENG 4440 - Engineering Operations Research Fall 2017
Homework #3: The Transportation Problem and Its Variants
Due on November 13th 2017

1) Cars are shipped by truck from three distribution centers to five dealers. The shipping cost is
based on the mileage between sources and destinations. This cost is independent of whether the
truck makes the trip with a partial or a full load. The following table summarizes the mileage
between the distribution centers and the dealers as well as the monthly supply and demand figures
estimated in number of cars. Each truck can carry a maximum of 18 cars. Given that the
transportation cost per truck mile is $10, formulate the problem as a transportation model and
solve it optimally using both Vogels Approximation Method (VAM) and the Transportation
Simplex Method [Do not use computer].

Dealers
1 2 3 4 5 Supply
Distribution 1 100 150 200 140 35 350
Centers 2 50 70 60 65 80 200
3 40 90 100 150 130 150
Demand 110 180 150 120 140

2) Three refineries with maximum daily capacities of 6 million, 5 million, and 8 million gallons of
gasoline supply three distribution areas with daily demands of 4 million, 8 million, and 7 million
gallons. Gasoline is transported to the three distribution areas through a network of pipelines.
The transportation cost is estimated based on the length of the pipeline at about 1 cent per 100
gallons per mile. The mileage table summarized here shows that refinery 1 is not connected to
distribution area 3. Construct a linear programming model for solving this transportation
problem, then solve it using Excel solver to provide its optimal solution.

Distribution Area
1 2 3
1 120 180 ---
Refinery 2 300 100 80
3 200 250 120

Suppose that the capacity of refinery 3 is reduced to 6 million gallons. Also, distribution area 1
must receive all its demand, and any shortage at areas 2 and 3 will result in a penalty of 5 cents
per gallon.
3) The coach of a certain swim team needs to assign swimmers to a 200-yard medley relay team to
send to the Junior Olympics. Since most of his best swimmers are very fast in more than one
stroke, it is not clear which swimmer should be assigned to each of the four strokes. The five
fastest swimmers and the best times (in seconds) they have achieved in each of the strokes (for
50 yards) are:

Stroke Carl Chris David Tony Ken

Backstroke 37.7 32.9 33.8 37.0 35.4
Breaststroke 43.4 33.1 42.2 34.7 41.8
Butterfly 33.3 28.5 38.9 30.4 33.6
Freestyle 29.2 26.4 29.6 28.5 31.1

Based on the given best times, use the Hungarian method to help the coach forming the best
assignments of swimmers to strokes. [Do not use computer]

4) Seven projects are to be completed, and seven different contractors are requested to submit bids.
Each contractor is capable of performing any of the projects, but can complete only one. It may
be further noted that the bid of contractor i on each project j is cij. The bids are submitted in
thousands of dollars, as shown in the following table

Project
Contractor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
A 2 4 6 3 5 4 5
B 4 3 1 2 4 1 3
C 2 1 5 7 1 3 3
D 9 2 1 4 5 2 3
E 8 6 4 3 2 2 1
F 4 4 3 6 4 3 6
G 4 3 2 5 4 3 3

Assuming that the contractor F will not be accepted to perform the project 4 due to some illegal
treats from his side, Build a linear programming model for this assignment problem and solve it
using Excel solver.
5) Sunco Oil produces oil at two wells. Well 1 can produce as many as 150,000 barrels per day, and
well 2 can produce as many as 200,000 barrels per day. It is possible to ship oil directly from the
wells to Suncos customers in Los Angeles and New York. Alternatively, Sunco could transport
oil to the ports of Mobile and Galveston and then ship it by tanker to New York and Los Angeles.
Los Angeles requires 160,000 barrels per day, and New York requires 140,000 barrels per day.
The costs of shipping 1,000 barrels between two points are shown in the next table. Formulate a
transshipment model and equivalent transportation model that could be used to minimize the
transportation costs in meeting the oil demands of Los Angeles and New York, then solve it using
Excel Solver.

To ($)
From Well 1 Well 2 Mobile Galveston N.Y. L.A.
Well 1 0 --- 10 13 25 28
Well 2 --- 0 15 12 26 25
Mobile --- --- 0 6 16 17
Galveston --- --- 6 0 14 16
N.Y. --- --- --- --- 0 15
L.A. --- --- --- --- 15 0
Note: dashes indicate shipments are not allowed