Designing an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis Model for Efficiency Evaluation of Decision-Making Units with Two-Stage Structures

Abstract

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a powerful tool for evaluating the efficiency of decision-making units for ranking and comparison purposes and to differentiate efficient and inefficient units. Classic DEA models are ill-suited for the problems where decision-making units consist of multiple stages with intermediate products and those where inputs and outputs are imprecise or nondeterministic, which is not uncommon in the real world. This paper presents a new DEA model for evaluating the efficiency of decision-making units with two-stage structures and triangular intuitionistic fuzzy data. The paper first introduces two-stage DEA models, then explains how these models can be modified with intuitionistic fuzzy coefficients, and finally describes how arithmetic operators for intuitionistic fuzzy numbers can be used for a conversion into crisp two-stage structures. In the end, the proposed method is used to solve an illustrative numerical example.