Modeling and optimization of a purchasing system in uncertain environments by an integrated fuzzy business process simulation and data envelopment analysis: a novel approach

  • Authors:

  • A. Azadeh;S. Nassiri;M. Asadzadeh

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran;University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran;University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

  • Venue:
  • SpringSim '10 Proceedings of the 2010 Spring Simulation Multiconference
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

In real situations particularly in business processes, the probability distributions are not known or imprecise and conventional modeling approaches may be questionable. Fuzzy simulation is capable of modeling uncertainties and vagueness. This paper introduces a novel approach based of fuzzy business process simulation (FBPS) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for re-engineering, assessment and optimization of a purchasing management system. An actual purchasing system is studied and various data were collected through standard methods. The users of the purchasing management verified that the goals of a re-engineering model are to create a process-oriented approach in order to reduce purchasing process cycle time, faster customer response time and lower cost. The results of fuzzy simulation approach are compared with conventional simulation by t-test. It is shown the performance of the actual system is modeled and improved by the fuzzy simulation approach of this study. The results of fuzzy simulation are more accurate and similar to real situations than previous results by conventional simulation. In addition, DEA is used to identify optimal solution among proposed alternatives. This is the first study that introduces an integrated FBPS-DEA for optimization of purchasing management systems.