a location at the i-th row and the j-th column of a transportation matrix that identifies a shipment from the i-th source of supply to the j-th destination.
completed cell
an assigned shipment from source, i, to destination, j. under the solution of the transportation model for the current iteration.
dummy
an artificial constraint which is constructed to make the total supply equal the total demand.
empty cell
a cell that does not contain a shipment.
feasible solution
a solution that exhausts the available supply capacities and at the same time satisfies all of the demand requirements.
optimal solution
the feasible solution with the smallest total transportation cost.
transportation matrix
a table consisting of m rows, each row representing a source of supply, and n columns, each column denoting a destination, and each (i, j) cell (i = 1, 2,..., m, j = 1,2,..., n) contains cost data about a shipment from the i-th source of supply to the j-th destination.
