Title: Solving the problem of industry by formulating it as a capacitated transportation problem

Authors: Kavita Gupta

Addresses: Department of Mathematics, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, India

Abstract: This paper presents the solution to the problem of the manager of a trading firm, D.M Chemicals, who deals in the trade of marble powder. The problem of the manager is to determine the quantity (in tons) of marble powder that the firm should purchase from different sellers and sell to the different buyers such that the total cartage and relative purchasing cost is minimised provided the demand and supply conditions are satisfied and the extra demand is also met during emergency situations. The problem under consideration is modelled as a linear plus linear fractional capacitated transportation problem with enhanced flow. The data is taken from the account keeping books of the firm. The solution so obtained by using the developed algorithm is compared with the existing data. Moreover, the solution obtained is verified by a computing software, Excel Solver.

Keywords: capacitated; transportation problem; enhanced flow; corner feasible solution; linear plus linear fractional; procurement management; cartage; purchasing cost; sale-purchase.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2018.095653

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2018 Vol.11 No.6, pp.705 - 721

Received: 14 Feb 2017
Accepted: 09 Oct 2017
Published online: 16 Oct 2018 *

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