Zero Next to Zero (ZnZ) Method: A New Approach for Solving Transportation Problem

Abstract

Transportation Problem (TP) plays the role in cost planning for distributing the commodities from the sources to the destinations. Initial Basic Feasible Solution (IBFS) is the first step to the way of obtaining an optimal solution. There are various algorithms to find IBFS. The best solution method gives optimal cost with the least iteration. In this paper, a new solution procedure namely Zero next to Zero (ZnZ) method has been proposed to determine the IBFS for TP. The aim is to obtain a total transportation cost that is similar or close to the optimal solution with the least iteration. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated using two characteristics and compared with the existing algorithms available in the literature. The comparison results indicate that the proposed approach yields better results by taking comparatively very less effort and computation.