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Abstract: In the literature, several algorithms are proposed for solving the transportation problems in fuzzy environment but in all the proposed algorithms the parameters are represented by normal fuzzy numbers. Chen [Operations on fuzzy numbers with function principal, Tamkang Journal of Management Science 6 (1985) 13–25] pointed out that in many cases it is not to possible to restrict the membership function to the normal form and proposed the concept of generalized fuzzy numbers. There are several papers in the literature in which generalized fuzzy numbers are used for solving real life problems but to the best of our knowledge, till now no one has used generalized fuzzy numbers for solving the transportation problems. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed for solving a special type of fuzzy transportation problems by assuming that a decision maker is uncertain about the precise values of transportation cost only but there is no uncertainty about the supply and demand of the product. In the proposed algorithm transportation costs are represented by generalized trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. To illustrate the proposed algorithm a numerical example is solved and the obtained results are compared with the results of existing approaches. Since the proposed approach is a direct extension of classical approach so the proposed approach is very easy to understand and to apply on real life transportation problems for the decision makers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the literature, several methods are proposed for solving transportation problems in fuzzy environment but in all the proposed methods the parameters are represented by normal fuzzy numbers. [S.H. Chen, Operations on fuzzy numbers with function principal, Tamkang Journal of Management Sciences 6 (1985) 13–25] pointed out that in many cases it is not to possible to restrict the membership function to the normal form and proposed the concept of generalized fuzzy numbers. There are several papers in the literature in which generalized fuzzy numbers are used for solving real life problems but to the best of our knowledge, till now no one has used generalized fuzzy numbers for solving the transportation problems. In this paper, a new method is proposed for solving fuzzy transportation problems by assuming that a decision maker is uncertain about the precise values of the transportation cost, availability and demand of the product. In the proposed method transportation cost, availability and demand of the product are represented by generalized trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. To illustrate the proposed method a numerical example is solved and the obtained results are compared with the results of existing methods. Since the proposed method is a direct extension of classical method so the proposed method is very easy to understand and to apply on real life transportation problems for the decision makers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ranking of fuzzy numbers play an important role in decision making, optimization, forecasting etc. Fuzzy numbers must be ranked before an action is taken by a decision maker. Cheng (Cheng, C. H. (1998). A new approach for ranking fuzzy numbers by distance method. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 95, 307–317) pointed out that the proof of the statement “Ranking of generalized fuzzy numbers does not depend upon the height of fuzzy numbers” stated by Liou and Wang (Liou, T. S., & Wang, M. J. (1992). Ranking fuzzy numbers with integral value. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 50, 247–255) is incorrect. In this paper, by giving an alternative proof it is proved that the above statement is correct. Also with the help of several counter examples it is proved that ranking method proposed by Chen and Chen (Chen, S. M., & Chen, J. H. (2009). Fuzzy risk analysis based on ranking generalized fuzzy numbers with different heights and different spreads. Expert Systems with Applications, 36, 6833–6842) is incorrect. The main aim of this paper is to modify the Liou and Wang approach for the ranking of L–R type generalized fuzzy numbers. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that the proposed approach provide the correct ordering of generalized and normal fuzzy numbers and also the proposed approach is very simple and easy to apply in the real life problems. It is shown that proposed ranking function satisfy all the reasonable properties of fuzzy quantities proposed by Wang and Kerre (Wang, X., & Kerre, E. E. (2001). Reasonable properties for the ordering of fuzzy quantities (I). Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 118, 375–385). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ranking of fuzzy numbers play an important role in decision-making, optimization, forecasting etc. Fuzzy numbers must be ranked before an action is taken by a decision maker. In this paper, with the help of several counter examples it is proved that the results proposed by Chen and Tang [C.C. Chen, H.C. Tang, Ranking of nonnormal -norm trapezoidal fuzzy numbers with integral value, Computers and Mathematics with Applications 56 (2008) 2340–2346] are applicable only for the nonnormal -norm trapezoidal fuzzy numbers with equal heights and a new approach is proposed for the ranking of nonnormal -norm trapezoidal fuzzy numbers with different heights. The results proposed by Chen and Tang are modified and to illustrate the proposed approach the counter examples are solved using the proposed approach. It is also shown that the proposed approach and the results, obtained by using the proposed approach, are valid. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]