What is Degeneracy in Transportation problem?

Degeneracy in a transportation problem. (Apr 2006)

In a transportation problem, degeneracy occurs when the number of Allocations are less than (Rows +Columns – 1), where

M= number of rows

N=number of columns

This is also called as Rim condition. If rim condition is satisfied, the solution is not degenerate.

But if number of allocations are less than (m + n – 1), then the solution is degenerate. To remove degeneracy, we need to take Epsilon Є which is an imaginary allocation almost equal to zero.