Optimal assignment of research and development projects in a large company using an integer programming model

Presented is an integer programming project assignment model based on five key assumptions: 1) the research projects that need to be assigned have been already approved by the company management, 2) the effort required to carry out the research has been estimated to be approximately equal to the company research capacity, 3) it is possible to assign a given project to any one of several research teams or laboratories, 4) researchers vary in their efficiency to research a given project. and 5) it is possible to quantify this difference. A sample problem is solved using a transportation type algorithm.