# Maritime Supply Chain Optimization by Using Fuzzy Goal Programming
## 4 Discussion  
From the start of international trading, transportation by sea represented the primary method for international trading and exchange of goods. And as the industries grew throughout time, Maritime Supply Chain (MSC) became more embedded in the operations of almost all businesses and industries. MSC definition and description are seemingly unclear, and its categorization from the supply chain discipline is not fully conceived. Hence, it represents a great area for research and review. As an attempt to define the term MSC, several researchers disassembled the sub-terms that form MSC, i.e., Maritime carriage and Supply Chain management, and defined them separately [40; 41]. Maritime carriage is the transport of items or commuters from one port to another by sea. While supply chain was defined by The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), 2016 as follows; \"supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion and all logistics management activities. Importantly it also includes co-ordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers\". Nowadays, maritime carriage is merged to the field of supply chain management, and its governance nature is always conceived from a logistical point of view [42]. Optimization is making the most out of something, and in several fields, it is utilized to solve problems and attain goals. After defining a model that describes the issue to be optimized, the optimization process should deliver that model to the specified goal, e.g., minimum, maximum or specific goals. Figure 4 shows the categorization of optimization methods. The MSC operation involves numerous activities and processes that require careful planning and monitoring. And optimization in logistical practices and processes is necessary to solve problems, reduce costs, improve services, and keeping a competitive stance in the market. Optimizing processes, costs or any logistical element in MSC, usually aims for economic and efficiency criteria, hence the need for multi-criteria optimization methods rather than single-criteria methods [43]. The Institute of logistics Information Technology (LIT) summarized the research areas of MSC and it is shown in Figure 5[44]. The MSC areas for optimization can be categorized into two main segments, i.e., container port operation and design. 1. The operation segment optimizes the interaction between the ports on one hand and the shippers, manufacturers and transport companies i.e., Trucks and railways, on the other hand. This interaction is comprised of the moving elements in inland transports, namely; trucks, chassis and containers. 2. The design segment focuses on optimizing the vessel operation at sea. It deals with the intercontinental container transport and the interaction between different ports. This segment correlates to the review criteria of this work. This work aims at systematically tracking literature in optimization practices in MSC, specifically the practices that relate to operations between ports rather than inland operations. Using Google Scholar search engine, the findings of the preliminary search of literature were conducted in the following manner:  
1. Realizing the number of articles concerning MSC by searching articles' titles with the following keywords: \"Maritime\", \"Logistics\" and \"Supply chain\". The number of articles equaled 688. 2. Realizing the number of articles concerning optimization research in MSC by adding the keyword \"Optimization\" in the search engine, without the condition of it being in the title of the article. The number of articles equaled 202. 3. Realizing the number of articles to be included in the review with a quick read of title and abstract, to see if the articles fit the review criteria i.e., optimization in MSC. 4.