The North-West Corner Rule is a method used in solving transportation problems in Operations Research. It is a heuristic approach that provides an initial feasible solution for the transportation problem. Here’s how it works:
- Initialization: Start at the northwest corner (top-left corner) of the transportation tableau.
- Allocation: Allocate units of supply from the northwest corner to the demand point in the first row and first column as much as possible, considering the supply and demand constraints.
- Adjustment: Adjust the supply and demand values accordingly after the allocation.
- Move to the Next Corner: Move to the next cell in the tableau (either right or down) and repeat steps 2-3 until all supply and demand values are exhausted.
- Completion: Once all supply and demand values are allocated, the initial feasible solution is obtained.
While the North-West Corner Rule provides an initial feasible solution, it may not always result in the optimal solution. However, it serves as a starting point for more sophisticated methods like the Modified Distribution Method or the Vogel’s Approximation Method to improve the solution iteratively.