The measurement and empirical evaluation of quality and productivity for manufacturing processes

This research investigates the conceptual relationships among quality costs, productivity, and quality proposed by Garvin, Juran, and Feigenbaum. It provides an empirical evaluation of these relationships by applying a specific linear programming approach, namely, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), to various production specifications developed for a linerboard manufacturing case study. The research investigates the changes in the efficiency values when various models derived from these qualities, productivity, and cost specifications are evaluated. The use of DEA as a method to support the modeling of these relationships is also discussed. The I.D.E.A.S. software program developed by Ali is used to implement DEA in the research.