I-SOFT – The Best Method for Finding the Best IBFS to Transportation Problems

Abstract

In this paper, we have improved the performance of the existing SOFTMIN method for finding best initial basic feasible solution (IBFS) to transportation problems (TPs) by imposing two changes / conditions on it. The “Improved SOFTMIN” method is simply called as I-SOFT method. The performance of the I-SOFT over SOFTMIN has been tested on a set of 21 identified and acknowledged “challenging” and “more challenging” TPs. Experimental results validate that the performance of I-SOFT is much better than that of by SOFTMIN. Besides, at present-day the I-SOFT method has been identified and long-established as the best method to find the best IBFS to TPs. This is factual because at present-day no method has been proposed and proved as the best method to find the optimal solution directly to any given TP. 2010