Providing a model for evaluate the efficiency of supply chain based on information flow using fuzzy network data envelopment analysis

Rapid development toward globalization, a competitive market, significant technological advances, and high customer expectations have encouraged companies to reduce costs and increase their competitive advantage. One of the things that can help companies achieve a competitive advantage is supply chain management. Information acts as an intermediary between all activities and operations within the supply chain. The innovation of this research can be shown in two aspects of application and modeling. In terms of application, with a review of the literature and investigating the application of multi-stage and network data development analysis in the supply chain, it was revealed that so far, the efficiency of financial and physical flows in the literature has been evaluated more and the indicators are mostly related to two financial and physical flows in the supply chain, therefore there is more research opportunity to evaluate the efficiency of information flow within the supply chain. Measuring the efficiency of information flow should be an integral part of supply chain management. Therefore, this research aimed to present a model to evaluate the efficiency of information flow in the supply chain. In terms of mathematical modeling, research innovation is considering the model of the network and reversible relationship in the supply chain. With a review of the literature, the indicators are investigated to evaluate the efficiency of information flow in the supply chain, and the validity of indicators is examined by the fuzzy Delphi method. Then the decision making unit and inputs and outputs of the model are introduced. In this research, the fuzzy network data envelopment analysis is used. In order to implement the models, we used the GAMS software.