Proposing an Integrative Approach for Efficiency Evaluation of Network Structures Including Tour and Allocation Link

Abstract

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is known as one of the most common approaches for efficiency evaluation. Network models are new subjects in which, a DMU with all its subunits and links is considered as a network structure. One of the most widely used DEA methods for network data is the suggested approach of Lewis and Sexton. In this approach, performance of each DMU is measured compared to a similar DMU by moving on the effective paths and then computing the final outputs and classic primary inputs . In reality, many cases can be found that an original input or an intermediate product allocates to several subunits or forms a tour in a network. In such networks, the approach of Lewis and Sexton is not able to calculate efficiency. Therefore, in this paper, an approach has been proposed for solving such problems and computing the efficiency of such networks.

Keywords

• Efficiency evaluation
• Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
• Decision-Making Unit (DMU)