On the equivalence of two optimization methods for fuzzy linear programming problems

The paper analyses the linear programming problem with fuzzy coefficients in the objective function. The set of nondominated (ND) solutions with respect to an assumed fuzzy preference relation, according to Orlovsky's concept, is supposed to be the solution of the problem. Special attention is paid to unfuzzy nondominated (UND) solutions (the solutions which are nondominated to the degree one). The main results of the paper are sufficient conditions on a fuzzy preference relation allowing to reduce the problem of determining UND solutions to that of determining the optimal solutions of a classical linear programming problem. These solutions can thus be determined by means of classical linear programming methods. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.