Maximum Acquisition Method (MAM): An alternative algorithm to finding an initial feasible solution for transportation problems

Abstract

Transportation problem being one of the most important applications of Linear Programming has become vastly applied in industries with multiple manufacturing units, warehouses and distribution centers. Various transportation algorithms for solving transportation problems to find feasible and optimal solutions have been developed among which are North-West Corner Rule (NWCR), Vogel’s Approximation Method (VAM), Least Cost Method (LCM) and Stepping Stones Method (SSM). In this paper, a new method for finding an initial basic feasible of transportation problem is proposed. The method is named Maximum Acquisition Method (MAM). The proposed algorithm is illustrated using some numerical examples. The proposed method gives an initial feasible solution of the transportation problems and is found to be better and efficient than existing methods.