A new approach for solving fuzzy transportation problems using generalized trapezoidal fuzzy numbers.

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]