BASIC SOLUTION OF TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM USING THE CONCEPT OF BEST CANDIDATE METHOD AND ITS COMPARISON WITH OTHER METHODS

Abstract

Transportation problem is one of the classical problems in operational research targeted to transport a material from various sources to different destinations at a minimum total cost. This research studies the basic solution of transportation problem using the concept of Best Candidate Method and compares it with the initial solutions obtained by North-West Corner Rule, Least Cost Method and Vogel’s Approximation Method. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the initial basic feasible solution of transportation problem by existing (North-West Corner, Least Cost, Vogel’s Approximation and Best Candidate) methods, modifying the Best Candidate Method and comparing the modified Best Candidate Method with existing methods. To compare the efficiency of the existing heuristic methods with that of modified Best Candidate Method, computational experiments are performed by randomly selecting seven transportation problems. The analysis is performed by comparing the average number of iterations required to produce the optimal solution and percent difference between the initial and the optimal solutions .The result of the this study shows that modified Best Candidate Method is better than existing methods in providing the initial basic feasible solution and gives optimal solution in less number of iterations when compared with the existing method. In some cases the Modified Best Candi date Method gives a combination such that the initial basic feasible solution is itself the optimal solution of the problem.