Title: Extended data envelopment models and a practical tool to analyse product complexity related to product variety for an automobile assembly plant

Authors: Hui Sun, Fong-Yuen Ding

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 211189, PR China. ' Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA

Abstract: In this paper, two extended Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models are developed to compare the product complexity levels of similar products of multiple automobile manufacturing firms. The numbers of attribute values of some major product attributes that have a significant cost impact on the manufacturing system and its supply chain are included as inputs in the proposed models. Furthermore, an incremental approach is presented to estimate the cost change associated with a certain product complexity change. A case study that applies the extended models and cost estimating tool at a US automobile assembly plant is presented.

Keywords: product complexity; DEA; data envelopment analysis; automobile industry; automotive assembly; factories; SCM; supply chain management; cost estimating; USA; United States; logistics management; product variety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2010.029723

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2010 Vol.6 No.1, pp.99 - 112

Published online: 01 Dec 2009 *

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