Operations Research Topics

Specialized techniques for specific business problems.

Transportation Problem

Goal: Minimize the cost of shipping goods from multiple sources (factories) to multiple destinations (warehouses).

Methods: Northwest Corner Rule, Least Cost Method, Vogel's Approximation.

Assignment Problem

Goal: Assign $n$ jobs to $n$ workers to minimize total time or cost. One-to-one mapping.

Method: Hungarian Method.

Inventory Models (EOQ)

Goal: Minimize total inventory costs (Ordering Cost + Holding Cost).

$$ EOQ = \sqrt{\frac{2DS}{H}} $$
$D$ = Annual Demand
$S$ = Ordering Cost per order
$H$ = Holding Cost per unit per year

Test Yourself

Q1: The Hungarian Method is used to solve which type of problem?

  • Transportation
  • Assignment
  • Inventory