New method to detect the best management models

URJC researchers, in collaboration with the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), propose a new methodology to create rankings that analyze the efficiency in the management of institutions or companies. This technique can contribute to the improvement of your production models.

Carlos Cano/Irene Vega

One of the most used techniques to measure the efficiency of an organization is data envelopment analysis (Data Envelopement Analysis, known by its acronym DEA). This methodology can be taken as a reference model by others. However, this technique is only capable of classifying organizations into efficient and inefficient units. As a result of the use of the DEA, there is generally more than one efficient unit, so it is necessary to establish a ranking between them in order to better discriminate those that should be used as reference models.

The researcher Clara Simón from the URJC, together with scientists from the UCM, has proposed a new methodology to build a ranking among organizations classified as efficient. This procedure can be applied to make a ranking between institutions or structures in which an efficiency study has been carried out with the aim of improving production management. For example, in university departments, in administrative areas or in library management.” says Clara Simón, co-author of the article. The results of the study have been recently published in the scientific journal European Journal of Operational Research.

What properties does this ranking method have?

In rankings obtained from this methodology, the efficient structures reach higher positions with respect to the non-efficient ones. At the same time, in terms of production management and good practices, efficient organizations whose production models are an example for non-efficient ones obtain higher scores in the global calculation. The novelty of this methodology is the detection of self-assessors. If a comparison is being made between universities, as Clara Simón explains, “one of its strong points may be efficient, but its general management model will not be replicated by any other. This can happen because the number of students is different or because of the infrastructure itself. Therefore, his score in the table will be lower”.

In addition, with this method it is possible to visualize the position of each one of the units in relation to the rest in terms of management. It also makes it possible to detect non-efficient organizations, whose exclusion does not affect the efficiency values achieved by the rest. The study concludes that this new methodology can be applied to any production model.