An alternative DEA approach for evaluating system efficiency in the presence of dual-role factors

In evaluating the performance of production systems, the role of a measure from input and output aspects is usually certain and known. Nevertheless, there are occasions in the real world that some factors can play both input and output roles. In data envelopment analysis (DEA) literature, these factors are called dual-role factors. In the current paper, an alternative DEA approach is proposed for incorporating dual-role factors in the production process. In previous models, a dual-role factor can only take one role (input, output or indifference to being an input or an output) after the evaluation while in the proposed model herein a dual-role factor can simultaneously take both input role and output role in estimating the efficiency of each decision making unit (DMU). Indeed, a portion of a dual-role factor is obtained as a mixture of input and output roles. A numerical example and an application illustrate the suggested approach. © 2019 University of Cincinnati. All rights reserved.