Assignment problems

Operational Research-
Level 4
Prepared by T.M.J.A.Cooray
Department of Marthematics
MA 402--assignment problem 2
Introduction
This is a special type of transportation
problem in which each source should have
the capacity to fulfill the demand of any of
the destinations.
In other words any operator would be able
perform any job regardless of his
skills,although the cost( or the time taken)
will be more if the job does not match with
operators skill.
MA 402--assignment problem 3

Let m be the number of jobs as well as the operators,
and t
ij
be the processing time of the job i if it is assigned
to the operator j. Here the objective is to assign the jobs
to the operators such that the total processing time is
minimized.
Operators



Job
1 2 j m
1 t
11
t
12
t
1j
t
1m
2
.
i t
i1
t
ij
t
im
.
m t
m1
t
m2
t
mj
t
mm
General format of assignment problem
MA 402--assignment problem 4
Examples of assignment problem
Row entity Column entity Cell entity
jobs operators Processing time
Programmer program Processing time

operators machine Processing time

Drivers Routes Travel time
Teachers Subjects Students pass
percentage
MA 402--assignment problem 5
Assignment problem as a zero-one (
Binary) programming problem .
Min Z= c
11
x
11
++c
ij
X
ij
+.+c
mm
X
mm
=

Subject to x
11
+...+x
1m
=1
x
21
+...+x
2m
=1
..
x
m1
+...+x
mm

=1
x
11
+...+x
m1
=1
x
12
+...+x
m2
=1
..
x
1m
+...+x
mm
=1
x
ij
.=0 or 1 for i=1,2.m and
j=1,2..m.
m j f or X
m i f or X
X C Z Min
m
i
ij
m
j
ij
m
i
m
j
ij ij
,.... 1 1
,.... 1 1
1
1
1 1
= =
= =
=

=
=
= =
MA 402--assignment problem 6
Types of assignment problems
As in transportation problems assignment
problems also can be balanced ( with equal
number of rows and columns) or unbalanced.
When it is unbalanced the necessary number
of row/s or column/s are added to balance it.
That is to make a square matrix.
The values of the cell entries of the dummy
rows or columns will be made equal to zero.
MA 402--assignment problem 7
Example : Assign the 5 operators to the 5
jobs such that the total processing time is
minimized.
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 10 12 15 12 8
2 7 16 14 14 11
3 13 14 7 9 9
4 12 10 11 13 10
5 8 13 15 11 15
MA 402--assignment problem 8
Hungarian method
Consists of two phases.
First phase: row reductions and column
reductions are carried out.
Second phase :the solution is optimized in
iterative basis.
MA 402--assignment problem 9
Phase 1: Row and column
reductions
Step 0: Consider the given cost matrix
Step 1: Subtract the minimum value of
each row from the entries of that row, to
obtain the next matrix.
Step 2: Subtract the minimum value of
each column from the entries of that
column , to obtain the next matrix.
Treat the resulting matrix as the input
for phase 2.

MA 402--assignment problem 10
Phase 2: Optimization
Step3: Draw a minimum number of lines to cover
all the zeros of the matrix.
Procedure for drawing the minimum number of
lines:
3.1 Row scanning
1 Starting from the first row ,if theres only one zero
in a row mark a square round the zero entry and
draw a vertical line passing through that zero.
Otherwise skip the row.
2.After scanning the last row, check whether all the
zeros are covered with lines. If yes go to step 4.
Otherwise do column scanning. Ctd
MA 402--assignment problem 11
3.2 Column scanning.
1. Starting from the first column: if theres
only one zero in a column mark a
square round the zero entry and draw a
horizontal line passing through that
zero. otherwise skip the column.
2.After scanning the last column, check
whether all the zeros are covered with
lines. If yes go to step 4. Otherwise do
row scanning. ctd
MA 402--assignment problem 12
Step 4: check whether the number of squares
marked is equal to the number of rows/columns of
the matrix.
If yes go to step 7. Otherwise go to step 5.
Step 5: Identify the minimum value of the undeleted
cell values ,say x. Obtain the next matrix by the
following steps.
5.1 Copy the entries covered by the lines ,but not on
the intersection points.
5.2 add x to the intersection points
5.3 subtract x from the undeleted cell values.
Step 6: go to step 3.
Step 7: optimal solution is obtained as marked by the
squares
MA 402--assignment problem 13
Maximization problem
If the problem is a maximization problem
,convert the problem into a minimization
problem by multiplying by -1.
Then apply the usual procedure of an
assignment problem.
MA 402--assignment problem 14
Example : Assign 4 sales persons to four
different sales regions such that the total
sales is maximized.
Sales
region

Sales person
1 2 3 4
1 10 22 12 14
2 16 18 22 10
3 24 20 12 18
4 16 14 24 20
MA 402--assignment problem 15
Modified data , after multiplying the cell
entries by -1.
Sales
region

Sales person
1 2 3 4
1 -10 -22 -12 -14
2 -16 -18 -22 -10
3 -24 -20 -12 -18
4 -16 -14 -24 -20
MA 402--assignment problem 16
After step 1
Sales
region

Sales person
1 2 3 4
1 12 0 10 8
2 6 4 0 12
3 0 4 12 6
4 8 10 0 4
MA 402--assignment problem 17
After step 2
Sales
region

Sales person
1 2 3 4
1 12 0 10 4
2 6 4 0 8
3 0 4 12 2
4 8 10 0 0
MA 402--assignment problem 18
Phase 2
Sales
region

Sales person
1 2 3 4
1 12 0 10 4
2 6 4 0 8
3 0 4 12 2
4 8 10 0 0
MA 402--assignment problem 19
Note that the number of squares is equal to the
number of rows of the matrix. solution is feasible
and optimal.
Result:

Salesman Sales region Sales
1 2 22
2 3 22
3 1 24
4 4 20
MA 402--assignment problem 20
Branch and Bound algorithm for the assignment
problem
Terminology:
K-level number in the branching tree
For root node k=0
o-assignment made in the current node of a branching tree
P
o
k
assignment at level k of the branching tree
A-set of assigned cells up to the node P
o
k
from the
root node
V
o
-
lower bound of partial assignment A up to P
o
k

Such that V
o
=



e e e
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
A j i X i Y j
ij
C C
,
min
MA 402--assignment problem 21
C
ij
is the cell entity of the cost matrix
X rows which are not deleted up to node P
o
k
from the root node in the branching tree.
Y columns which are not deleted up to node
P
o
k
from the root node in the branching tree.


MA 402--assignment problem 22
Branching guidelines
1.At level k,the row marked as k of the
assignment problem,will be assigned with
the best column of the assignment problem.
2.if there is a lower bound ,then the terminal
node at the lower most level is to be
considered for further branching
3.stopping rule:if the minimum lower bound
happens to be at any one of the terminal
nodes at the (n-1)
th
level ,the optimality is
reached.
MA 402--assignment problem 23
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 10 12 15 12 8
2 7 16 14 14 11
3 13 14 7 9 9
4 12 10 11 13 10
5 8 13 15 11 15
Example : Assign the 5 operators to the 5
jobs such that the total processing time is
minimized.
MA 402--assignment problem 24
P
|
0

P
12
1
P
13
1
P
14
1
P
15
1
P
11
1
} 5 , 4 , 3 , 2 { }, 5 , 4 , 3 , 2 { )}, 11 {( )}, 11 {(
1
11
= = = = Y X A
P for bound lower
o
49 ) 11 10 7 11 ( 10
) min (
5 , 4 , 3 , 2 5 , 4 , 3 , 2
11 11
= + + + + =
+ =

= = i j
ij
C c V
51 44 49
44
40
MA 402--assignment problem 25
P
|
0

P
12
1
P
13
1
P
14
1
P
15
1
P
11
1
} 4 , 3 , 2 { }, 5 , 4 , 3 { )}, 15 ( ), 21 {( )}, 21 {(
2
21
= = = = Y X A
P for bound lower
o
43 ) 11 10 7 ( 7 8
) min (
5 , 4 , 3 4 , 3 , 2
21 15 21
= + + + + =
+ + =

= = i j
ij
C c c V
49
44 49 44
40
P
21
2
P
23
2
P
24
2
43
50
P
22
2
49 47
MA 402--assignment problem 26
P
|
0

P
12
1
P
13
1
P
14
1
P
15
1
P
11
1
49
44 49 44
40
P
21
2
P
23
2
P
24
2
43
50
P
22
2
49 47
P
32
3
P
33
3
P
34
3
51
43
47
P
42
4
P
44
4
43
48
MA 402--assignment problem 27
The optimum allocation will be
Job operator time
1 5 8
2 1 7
3 3 7
4 2 10
5 4 11
43
MA 402--assignment problem 28
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 10 12 15 12 8
2 7 16 14 14 11
3 13 14 7 9 9
4 12 10 11 13 10
5 8 13 15 11 15
Example :ROW SCANNING.
MA 402--assignment problem 29
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 10 12 15 12 8
2 7 16 14 14 11
3 13 14 7 9 9
4 12 10 11 13 10
5 8 13 15 11 15
Example : Assign the 5 operators to the 5 jobs
such that the total processing time is
minimized.
MA 402--assignment problem 30
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 4 7 4 0
2 0 9 7 7 4
3 6 7 0 2 2
4 2 0 1 3 0
5 0 5 7 4 8
Example : Assign the 5 operators to the 5 jobs
such that the total processing time is
minimized.
MA 402--assignment problem 31
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 4 7 2 0
2 0 9 7 5 4
3 6 7 0 0 2
4 2 0 1 1 0
5 0 5 7 2 8
Example : Assign the 5 operators to the 5 jobs
such that the total processing time is
minimized.
MA 402--assignment problem 32
Operator
job
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 4 6 1 0
2 0 9 6 4 4
3 7 8 0 0 3
4 2 0 0 0 0
5 0 5 6 1 8
Example : Assign the 5 operators to the 5 jobs
such that the total processing time is
minimized.