Assignment Problem

The assignment problem is a particular type of transportation problem in which the objective is
to assign a number of origins to an equal number of destinations on a one-to-one basis such that
the cost is minimum or profit is maximum.
(I) Finding the optimal assignment by the Hungarian method (minimization
problem):

1. Subtract the smallest element of each row from every element of that row.
2. In the resulting matrix subtract the smallest element of each column from every element of
that column.
3. Examine the rows, one by one, starting from row 1, until a row with a single zero is found.
Encircle this zero and cross out all zeros in its column.

4. When all rows have been examined, examine the columns, one by one, starting from
column 1, until a column with a single zero is found. Encircle this zero and cross out all
zeros in its row.
5. The operations in steps 3 and 4 are continued successively until all zeros have either been
encircled or crossed out.
6. If each row and each column has exactly one encircled zero, assignment is made in the cells
having encircled zeros. This is the optimal assignment.
7. If each row and each column do not have exactly one encircled zero, more zeros are
generated as follows. Draw minimum number of horizontal and/or vertical lines to cover all
zeros. Find the smallest element not covered by any of the lines. Subtract this smallest
element from from all uncovered elements and add this smallest element to each element
lying at the intersection of any two lines.
8. Repeat from step 3 until optimal assignment is obtained.

(II) A rule for drawing minimum number of lines to cover all zeros:
√
1. Tick ( ) rows that do not have any encircled zero.
√
2. Tick ( ) columns that have zeros (encircled or otherwise) in ticked rows.
√
3. Tick ( ) rows that have encircled zeros in ticked columns.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the chain of ticking is completed.

5. Draw lines through all unticked rows and ticked columns.