ZNAČAJ PRIMENE TRANSPORTNOG PROBLEMA U FUNKCIJI IZBORA OPTIMALNOG REŠENJA / IMPORTANCE OF USING A TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM FOR THE PURPOSE OF CHOOSING THE OPTIMAL SOLUTION

Abstract

The constant need for the movement of goods and for providing services leads us towards finding the most favorable solution concerning the shortest routes and (or) lowest costs. For this reason, more attention should be paid to this important part of the transportation process. This paper presents a transportation problem as a special instance of linear programming. The most common elements related to transportation problems are costs, time and distance, the values of which should be minimized. Using a transportation enterprise as an example, the process of transporting a certain number of units (load) from various sources to various destinations is described. The basic assumption is that the supply of the sources (the amount of goods which is available) must be used, and that the demands of all the destinations (the needs) must be met. Using the example of the supply–demand ratio, the existing methods are analyzed, and their application and the way in which the optimal solution is chosen based on the obtained results are described.