Integrating fuzzy intermediate factors in supply chain efficiency evaluation

Abstract

Effective supply chain management (SCM) depends on the reasonable performance evaluation to the entire supply chain. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been widely developed to measure the performance of supply chains. Although there are sufficient researches on performance evaluation to supply chains, all of these precursory surveys assume that the inputs and outputs involved in performance evaluation are crisp data. However, in most situations only fuzzy information on intermediate factor is available. The current chapter integrates fuzzy intermediate factors in supply chain efficiency evaluation and proposes a fuzzy supply chain data envelopment analysis (FSCDEA) model based on previous supply chain DEA models. A triangular fuzzy membership function is attached on the fuzzy intermediate factors. According to the operational rules on triangular fuzzy numbers, we turn the FSCDEA model into a linear programming. Finally we use the proposed FSCDEA model to assess the operational efficiency of a group of bank branches. Three theorems about the FSCDEA efficiency are proposed and validated. The advantages of the FSCDEA model are also discussed. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.