| One of the most important special types of linear programming is known as the transportation problem. The transshipment problem is a variation of the transportation problem. Most of the solution techniques for the transshipment problem require the conversion of the transshipment problem into an equivalent transportation problem, then solve it using either the simplex method of linear programming or the transportation algorithm. However, because of the inflexibilities inherited in these solution methods, any chance for further improvement in the result may be severely restricted. The purpose of this research is to develop a generalized linear goal programming model to solve the transshipment problem. More specifically, we will show that the proposed goal programming model can provide a less costly solution than those of the transportation and transshipment problems.;Goal programming is the most effective technique that can be used in situations that involve multiple conflicting objectives. The technique is an extension of linear programming. However, linear programming deals only with problems that involve the accomplishment of one objective subject to a number of linear constraints. Goal programming, on the other hand, is capable of solving problems with multiple conflicting goals.;The model was developed and used to formulate and solve the transshipment problem for a nationwide transportation company. Because of the seasonal variations of supply and demand and the need to set target goals for the supply and demand, that might be conflicting, the linear goal programming technique seems to be relevant approach to use in modeling the company's operations.;A statistically significant sample of actual transportation situations was randomly selected from the records of the subject firm and formulated as transportation, transshipment, and goal programming problems. The solutions to these problems were compared for minimization of the shipping cost.;Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results showed that the proposed goal programming model has produced solutions with significantly less shipping cost than those of the transportation and transshipment problems. |
