Suitable combination of inputs for improving outputs in DEA with determining input congestion: Considering textile industry of China

In existing models in DEA the changes which are done in inputs proportions, are often based on inputs reduction. Apparently this subject is a reasonable justification economically because of reducing, (removing), the costs of the reduced inputs. But in some cases, inputs reduction such as labor may be faced with social tensions, as it happened in China. Cooper et al. [Socio Econ. Plan. Sci. 35 (2001) 227], with a proper initiative on the data of Chinese industry for improving congestion management, increased labor input and reduced capital input that it had constructive results. These results show that causing suitable changes to determining an input combination, which is fitting with the condition of a society, theoretically is necessary toward increasing output in general case. So it seems essential to use more flexibility in the change of the used input combination for getting the best output. At the same time the minimum changes toward increasing and the maximum ones toward decreasing inputs should be done because of costing inputs. In this article, with attending to this subject and presenting a proper criterion for evaluating decision making units by providing proposed models, their results will be * Corresponding author. Address: Institute of Mathematics, Teacher Training University, 599 Taleghani Street, Tehran 15614, Iran. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Khodabakhshi). 0096-3003/$ see front matter 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0096-3003(03)00337-0 264 G.R. Jahanshahloo, M. Khodabakhshi / Appl. Math. Comput. 151 (2004) 263–273 studied on the data of Chinese industry. Furthermore, the amount of input congestion will be accounted with these models as well. 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.