I think this problem should have a known solution, but I wasn't able to find any reference. Consider a multiset of size $n \cdot m$, $n$ elements and all element multiplicities equal to $m$. What is the maximum number of transpositions (swaps) needed to make two permutations of the multiset equal, in the worst case? When $m = 1$ the result is well known and is $n-1$, but what about $m \ge 2$?