Assignment Problems

Dr Yamini S.
Faculty of Operations and
Analytics

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 1

 Assignment Problem
• An assignment problem determines an optimal way to assign m subjects
to n subjects in the best possible way
• Although the typical objective is to minimize the cost, maximization
objective is also possible
• It assumes all workers are assigned and each job is performed
• An assignment problem is a special case of a transportation problem in
which all supplies and all demands are equal to 1; hence assignment
problems may be solved as a linear program
• The special integer flow property of network models automatically ensures
unique assignments
10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 2
 Applications of Assignment problem
• Problems related to assignment arise in a range of fields, such as,
health care, transportation, education and sports
• Resource allocation problem
Managers matching up their personnel with tasks/projects to be
performed
Assignment of machines, vehicles, or plants to tasks/jobs
• Course bidding
• Timetabling problem
Class rooms, Timeslots, Faculty availability

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 3

 Network representation of Assignment
Problem
c11
1 1
c12
An assignment problem seeks c13
to minimize the total cost Agents Tasks
c21
assignment of m workers to m c22
2 2
jobs, given that the cost of
c23
worker i performing job j is cij.
c31
c32
3 3
c33

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 4

 Formulation for Assignment Problem

Formulation
Notations
m n

xij 1 if agent i is assigned to task j

Min  c x
i =1 j =1
ij ij

n
0 otherwise x =1 i =1, 2, ,m Agents
ij
j =1
m

cij - cost of assigning agent i to task j x

i =1
ij =1 j =1, 2, ,n Tasks

xij > 0 for all i and j

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 5

 Assignment Problem - Example
Scott Inc. is an accounting firm that has three new clients. Project leaders will
be assigned to the three clients. Based on different backgrounds and
experiences of the leaders, the various leader clients assignment differ in
terms of projected completion times. The possible assignment and the
estimated completion times in days are as follows:
Leader Client 1 Client 2 Client 3

Jackson 10 16 32
Ellis 14 22 40
Smith 22 24 34
Develop a network representation and formulate the problem as LP and solve
to find the total time required
10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 6
 Special Cases of Assignment Problem
Unbalanced Assignment Problem
Number of agents exceeds the number of tasks:
No modification required in the linear programming problem
Extra agents simply remain unassigned

Number of tasks exceeds the number of agents:

Add enough dummy agents to equalize the number of agents and the number of
tasks
The objective function coefficients for these new variables would be zero so that new
objective function value represents the actual cost.
No assignments will actually be made from dummy agent. The tasks assigned to the
dummy agent will not have any actual agent assigned

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 7

 Special Cases of Assignment Problem
The assignment alternatives are evaluated in terms of revenue or profit
Solve as a maximization problem
An assignment is unacceptable
Remove the corresponding decision variable,
xij = 0
An agent is permitted to work t tasks:
𝑛

෍ 𝑥𝑖𝑗 ≤ 𝑡 𝑖 = 1,2,… , 𝑚 Agents

𝑗=1

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 8

 Assignment Problem - Example
The U.S. cable company uses a distribution system with 5 centers and
customer zones. Each customer zone is assigned a sole source supplier;
each customer zone receives all of its cable products from the same
distribution center. In an effort to balance demand and workload at the
distribution centers, the company’s vice president of logistics specified
that distribution centers may not be assigned more than three customer
zones. Determine the assignment of customer zones to distribution
centers that will minimise cost. Suppose each distribution center is
limited toa maximum of two customer zones. How does this constraint
change the assignment and the cost of supplying customer zones?

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 9

Distribution Centers LA Chicago Columbus Atlanta Newark Kancas City Denver Dallas

Plano 70 47 22 53 98 21 27 13

Nasville 75 38 19 58 90 34 40 26

Flagsstaff 50 78 37 82 111 40 29 32

SF 16 23 8 39 82 36 32 45

Boulder 45 40 29 75 86 25 11 37

10 May 2022 Yamini | Operations Research 10