Design of efficient systems of commercial material handling equipment for supply chain and logistics facilities using DEA

The purpose of this paper is to assist designers and logistics/manufacturing managers in designing efficient material handling (MH) systems from compatible commercial MH models that meet user requirements and have desired specifications using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The latter approach helps consider both technical and economic aspects of MH and ranks candidate commercial models and systems. The results show that attractive systems and their commercial models to be acquired should have low cost, require small space, and have high capacity. The application presented herein enhances formation of supply chains, where a MH system is a key component, and relieves users of the need to assume and estimate data relating to operations in a facility as it uses only data that are available during the design of a new system, and eliminates through modelling the need to quantify qualitative factors.