FREE SOFTWARE FOR DECISION ANALYSIS - A Software Package for Data Envelopment Models

Abstract

Data Envelopment Analysis is based on linear programming problems (LPP) in order to find the efficiency of Decision Making Units (DMUs). This process can be computationally intense, as a LPP has to be run for each unit. Besides, a typical DEA LPP has a large number of redundant constraints concerning the inefficient DMUs. That results in degenerate LPPs and in some cases, multiple efficient solutions. The developed work intends to to fill out a gap in current DEA software packages i.e. the lack of a piece of software capable of producing full results in classic DEA models as well as the capability of using more advanced DEA models. The software package interface as well as the models and solution algorithms were implemented in Delphi. Both basic and advanced DEA models are allowed in the package. Besides the main module that includes the DEA models, there is an additional module containing some models for decision support such as the multicriteria model called Analytic Hierarchic Process (AHP). The developed piece of software was coined as FSDA – Free Software for Decision Analysis.