Extended data envelopment models and a practical tool to analyse product complexity related to product variety for an automobile assembly plant

In this paper, two extended Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models are developed to compare the product complexity levels of similar products of multiple automobile manufacturing firms. The numbers of attribute values of some major product attributes that have a significant cost impact on the manufacturing system and its supply chain are included as inputs in the proposed models. Furthermore, an incremental approach is presented to estimate the cost change associated with a certain product complexity change. A case study that applies the extended models and cost estimating tool at a US automobile assembly plant is presented.