Maximin Optimization Problem Subject to Min-Product Fuzzy Relation Inequalities with Application in Supply and Demand Scheme

In a supply chain system, the prices with which the suppliers supply its local commodity to the retailers should satisfy the requirements of the retailers and the consumers. The supply and demand scheme satisfying these requirements is reduced into fuzzy relation inequalities (FRIs) with min-product composition. Due to the difference between the min-product composition and the classical max-t-norm one, we first study the resolution of such min-product FRI system. For optimization management in the supply chain system, we further investigate a maximin programming problem subject to the min-product FRIs. An algorithm is proposed to obtain the optimal solution based on the quasi-maximal matrix and corresponding index set. To illustrate the efficiency of our proposed algorithm, we provide a simple numerical example. The obtained optimal solution reflects an optimal pricing scheme, which maximizes the minimum prices of the commodity from the suppliers.