Maritime Supply Chain Optimization by Using Fuzzy Goal Programming

Abstract

Fuzzy goal programming has important applications in many areas of supply chain, logistics, transportation and shipping business. Business management has complications, and there exist many interactions between the factors of its components. The locomotive of world trade is maritime transport and approximately 90% of the products in the world are transported by sea. Optimization of maritime operations is a challenge in order to provide technical, operational and financial benefits. Fuzzy goal programming models attract interests of many scholars, therefore the objective of this paper is to investigate the problem of minimization of total cost and minimization of loss or damage of containers returned from destination port. There are various types of fuzzy goal programming problems based on models and solution methods. This paper employs fuzzy goal programming with triangular fuzzy numbers, membership functions, constraints, assumptions as well as the variables and parameters for optimizing the solution of the model problem. The proposed model presents the mathematical algorithm, and reveals the optimal solution according to satisfaction rank from 0 to 1. Providing a theoretical background, this study offers novel ideas to researchers, decision makers and authorities.

Keywords

• maritime supply chain
• optimization
• goal programming
• fuzzy sets