A stochastic inventory problem with fuzzy shortage cost

Up to now, many inventory models have been considered in the literature. Some assume stochastic demands and others consider the deterministic case. Though they include a shortage cost due to lost sales, it is usually assumed to be known concretely and a priori. This paper introduces fuzziness of shortage cost explicitly into the classical newsboy problem. That is, we investigate the so-called fuzzy newsboy problem where its shortage cost is vague and given by an L shape fuzzy number. Then the total expected profit function also becomes a fuzzy number. Finally, we find an optimal ordering quantity realizing the fuzzy max order of the profit function (fuzzy min order considering the profit function) and compare it with the optimal ordering quantity of the non-fuzzy newsboy problem. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.