A Safety Approach for Measuring Efficiency of Projects, Using Data Envelopment Analysis

One of the key issues in projects management is improvement of projects' efficiency. Efficiency subject in project management has been discussed from different aspects and one of the problems which influence efficiency of projects is the high rate of accidents at the workplace. So, it is clear that safety issue as a vital dimension of each activity can decline organizations' efficiency. Various approaches and indicators have been proposed in this context. One of the practical approaches in the field of operation research which examine efficiency of decision making units is data envelopment analysis. Therefore, in this paper a DEA method is applied to measure efficiency of project organizations taking into account safety factors. The criteria considered in this model are safety costs, number of accidents and lost days. This approach may help safety managers to effectively evaluate safety performance of each project concerning safety performance of the best project. Results of DEA model can be used in order to calculate and determine benchmark values to compare with inefficient projects.