DS321-Linear & Integer Programming - Prof. Dr. Tarek H. M.

Abou-El-Enien

Notes on Lesson (20)

The assignment Problem

1) Introduction:
The assignment problem is a special type of linear programming problem
where assignees are being assigned to perform tasks. For example, the
assignees might be employees who need to be given work assignments.
Assigning people to jobs is a common application of the assignment
problem. However, the assignees need not be people. They also could be
machines, or plants, or even time slots to be assigned tasks.

The assignment problem assumptions:

(1) The number of assignees and the number of tasks are the same. (This
number is denoted by n).
(2) Each assignee is to be assigned to exactly one task.
(3) Each task is to be performed by exactly one assignee.
(4) There is a cost 𝑐𝑖𝑗 associated with assignee i (i=1,2,…,n) performing
task j (j=1,2,…,n).
(5) The objective is to determine how all n assignments should be made to
minimize the total cost.
2) Linear Programming Formulation of the assignment Problem:
Let 𝑐𝑖𝑗 be the cost of assigning worker (or activity or ….) i to job (or
unit or …) j , and define :
1, if worker 𝑖 is assigned to job 𝑗
𝑥𝑖𝑗 = {
0, otherwise

Then the LP model is given as:

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 DS321-Linear & Integer Programming - Prof. Dr. Tarek H. M. Abou-El-Enien

𝑚 𝑛

𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝐹 = ∑ ∑ 𝑐𝑖𝑗 𝑥𝑖𝑗 ,

𝑖=1 𝑗=1

subject to
𝑛

∑ 𝑥𝑖𝑗 = 1, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖 = 1,2, … , 𝑛,

𝑗=1
𝑛

∑ 𝑥𝑖𝑗 = 1, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑗 = 1,2, … , 𝑛,

𝑖=1

𝑥𝑖𝑗 = 0 𝑜𝑟 1.

Note:
The objective of the model is to determine the minimum-cost
assignment of workers (or activity or ….) to jobs (or units or …).

Example(1):
AliShop needs to assign 3 jobs to 3 workers. The cost of performing a job is a
function of the skils of the workers. The following table summarizes the cost of the
assignments.
Job
Worker
1 2 3
1 120 EP 115 EP 131 EP
2 117 EP 116 EP 133 EP
3 118 EP 119 EP 127 EP
Write the linear programming model for the above problem to determine the
minimum-cost assignment of workers to jobs.

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 DS321-Linear & Integer Programming - Prof. Dr. Tarek H. M. Abou-El-Enien

Solution:
The LP model of the problem is given as:
𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝐹 = 120𝑥11 + 115𝑥12 + 131𝑥13
+117𝑥21 + 116𝑥22 + 133𝑥23
+118𝑥31 + 119𝑥31 + 127𝑥33 ,
subject to
𝑥11 + 𝑥12 + 𝑥13 = 1,
𝑥21 + 𝑥22 + 𝑥23 = 1,
𝑥31 + 𝑥32 + 𝑥33 = 1,
𝑥11 + 𝑥21 + 𝑥31 = 1,
𝑥12 + 𝑥22 + 𝑥32 = 1,
𝑥13 + 𝑥23 + 𝑥33 = 1,
𝑥𝑖𝑗 = 0 𝑜𝑟 1, ∀ 𝑖, 𝑗.

3) Special Solution Methods for the Assignment Problems:

The following methods can be used to solve the assignment problems:
(1) The complete Enumeration method,
(2) The Hungarian method,
(3) The branch and bound method.

3-1) Complete Enumeration Method:

There are 𝒏! of different solutions for the problem, we can tabulate and
compare all those solutions to find the optimal solution. This technique
is called the complete Enumeration method. The following numerical
example illustrates the method.

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 DS321-Linear & Integer Programming - Prof. Dr. Tarek H. M. Abou-El-Enien

Example(2):
AliShop needs to assign 3 jobs to 3 workers. The cost of performing a
job is a function of the skils of the workers. The following table
summarizes the cost of the assignments.
Job
Worker
1 2 3
1 20000 EP 15000 EP 31000 EP
2 17000 EP 16000 EP 33000 EP
3 18000 EP 19000 EP 27000 EP
Use the complete enumeration method to find the minimum cost to assign 3 jobs to
3 workers for the above problem.

Solution:
No. All combinations
1 𝑊1 𝐽1 𝑊2 𝐽2 𝑊3 𝐽3
2 𝑊1 𝐽1 𝑊3 𝐽2 𝑊2 𝐽3
3 𝑊2 𝐽1 𝑊1 𝐽2 𝑊3 𝐽3
4 𝑊2 𝐽1 𝑊3 𝐽2 𝑊1 𝐽3
5 𝑊3 𝐽1 𝑊2 𝐽2 𝑊1 𝐽3
6 𝑊3 𝐽1 𝑊1 𝐽2 𝑊2 𝐽3
Cost
20000+16000+27000=63000
20000+19000+33000=72000
17000+15000+27000=59000
17000+19000+31000=67000
18000+16000+31000=65000
18000+15000+33000=66000

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