Title: Evaluating the importance of the weight factors in DEA optimisation

Authors: Izzat Alsmadi; Hassan Najadat; Ibrahim Al-Oqily

Addresses: Information Systems Department, Prince Sultan University, Rafha Street, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Computer Information Systems, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan ' Department of Computer Science, Hashemite University, P.O. Box 150459, Zarqa 13115, Jordan

Abstract: In data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency of business units are evaluated based on the general assessment of unit outputs divided by unit inputs. Users can specify those inputs including: costs of equipment, overhead, salaries, etc. and output can be directly related to revenue or any other non-monetary output such as performance. To utilise DEA approach effectively, a decision support tool is also developed to allow decision-making unit (DMU) decision-makers to change input and outputs attributes on the fly and see the change impact on the DMU efficiency. This helps those users understand the value of the DEA analysis and see the change impact resulting from its measurements of DMU efficiency in this dataset.

Keywords: DEA optimisation; data envelopment analysis; relative performance; knowledge management; decision support systems; DSS; HIS; health information systems; weight factors; decision making units; DMUs; DMU efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDS.2015.072410

International Journal of Data Science, 2015 Vol.1 No.2, pp.172 - 188

Received: 10 Jan 2014
Accepted: 16 Mar 2014

Published online: 13 Oct 2015 *

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