A Comparative Study of Initial Basic Feasible Solution by a Least Cost Mean Method (LCMM) of Transportation Problem

Abstract

Transportation Problems (TP), as is known, are a basic network problem which can be formulated as a Linear Programming Problem (LPP). Transportation networks are built up in order to save transportation cost. In the solution procedure of a TP, finding an Initial Basic Feasible Solution (IBFS) is necessary to obtain the optimal solution. Optimality gives us the optimal route that prompts either most extreme benefit or least aggregate cost whichever is required. In this research paper, a new method named Least Cost Mean Method is proposed to obtain a better IBFS where row penalty and column penalty is brought out by the mean of lowest and next lowest cost of each row and each column of the cost matrix. The method is illustrated with numerical examples. To verify the performance of the proposed method, a comparative study is also carried out and observed that it is computationally easier and yielding comparatively better solution.