An innovative exact method for solving fully interval integer transportation problems

Abstract

A new method namely, the mid-width method, is proposed herein for finding the optimal interval solution to an interval biomedical transportation problem in which shipping cost, supply and demand parameters are real intervals. The mid-width method is an exact method and is developed on two independent transportation problems which are obtained from a fully integer transportation problem. A numerical example in the field of pharmaceutical logistics is presented for understanding the solution procedure of the suggested method. Furthermore, the proposed method is extended to fuzzy transportation problems. Keywords: Transportation problem, Real intervals, Mid-width method, Optimal interval solution, Triangular fuzzy numbers