Route Assignment Problem

The problem of distributing goods from depots to consumers plays an important role in the management of many distribution systems, and therefore when it is programmed efficiently it may yield significant savings. In a typical distribution system, trucks provide pick-up and delivery services to customers that are geographically dispersed in a given area. In many of its applications, the main objective of distribution is to find a set of routes for such trucks, satisfying a variety of constraints, so as to minimize the total distribution cost. This work focuses on a decision model for a real world problem. The problem reveals itself as assignment of trucks to routes by Latex Foam Rubber Products Limited-Kumasi, Ghana. This study addresses the problem of finding an efficient assignment of the limited number of trucks at the company’s disposal to the routes they ply while serving its customers outside the metropolis. In this work we use a solution procedure based on Munkres Assignment Algorithm for optimal assignment of non-homogenous fleet of trucks to a given set of routes, where Latex Foam Rubber Products Limited-Kumasi, distributes its products to its customers.