A new composite indicator for Manufacturing efficiency

The efficiency of production processes is a topic of fundamental importance in the manufacturing sector. Different approaches for measuring the efficiency of manufacturing processes have been presented over time. However, the debate on the reliability of the tools and indicators currently available, as well as on their effectiveness and the ability to capture changes in dynamic contexts, is still open. This paper tries to overcome some of these limitations by proposing an innovative composite indicator to measure and control the performance of production processes. The composite indicator we introduced is based on an integrated approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and a new multi-criteria method such as Parsimonious Analytical Hierarchy Process (PAHP), taking also into account the opinion of the domain experts. The methodological approach we proposed has been tested in a production plant of an international company operating in the automotive sector. Results demonstrated that the integration of DEA and PAHP into a composite indicator allow to obtain a more reliable and effective control tool in the analysis of the efficiency of production processes.