SOLVING TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS USING THE BEST CANDIDATES METHOD

Problem statement: The optimization processes in mathematics, computer science and economics are solving effectively by choosing the best element from set of available alternatives elements. The most important and successful applications in the optimization refers to transportation problem (TP), that is a special class of the linear programming (LP) in the operation research (OR). Approach: The main objective of transportation problem solution methods is to minimize the cost or the time of trans portation. Most of the currently used methods for solving transportation problems are trying to reach the optimal solution, whereby, most of these methods are considered complex and very expansive in term of the execution time. In this study we use the bes t candidate method (BCM), in which the key idea is to minimize the combinations of the solution by choosing the best candidates to reach the optimal solution. Results: Comparatively, applying the BCM in the proposed method obtains the best initial feasib le solution to a transportation problem and performs faster than the existing methods with a minimal computation time and less complexity. The proposed methods is therefore an attractive alternative to traditional problem solution methods. Conclusion/Rec ommendations: The BCM can be used successfully to solve different business problems of distribution products that is commonly referred to a transportation problems.