Evaluating of supply chain performance via complex N-DEA methods

Supply chain management is an important competitive strategy used by modern enterprises. Effective design and management of supply chains assists in the production and delivery of a variety of products at low costs, high quality and short lead times. An appropriate performance measurement system is an important requirement for the effective management of a supply chain. Two hurdles are present in measuring the performance of a supply chain and its members. One is the existence of multiple measures that characterize the performance of chain members, and for which data must be acquired; the other is the existence of conflicts between the members of the chain with respect to specific measures. Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) cannot be employed directly to measure the performance of supply chain and its members, because of the existence of the intermediate measures connecting the supply chain members. This paper discusses the efficiency measurement and decomposition of general reversal system, where each stage consumes exogenous inputs and intermediate products to produce exogenous outputs and intermediate products; so that a division in a later stage may affect the operations of a division in a earlier stage

Keywords:

Supply chain , Performance , DEA , Complex network