Using data envelopment analysis to assess the efficiency of portuguese post offices and postal distribution centers

• Autor(a) principal: Manso, Ana Luisa Fadista
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/6024
• topic: Contabilidade; Eficiência; Avaliação; Data envelopment analysis; Correios; Distribuição

The Portuguese Post Offices have suffered, since their inception in 1520, profound changes in their structure and in the services provided to the population. Anyone who visits today the company CTT Correios de Portugal, SA, whether visiting a post office, a postal distribution center or a post treatment center will certainly be surprised not only with all the technology that supports internal operations, but also with the professionalism and proactive attitude of the employees of this company. All this evolution perceived by customers is the result of five centuries of history. The aim of this study is to explore the potential of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of the post offices and postal distribution centers (PDCs) in the south of Portugal. To this effect, we collected data from 84 post offices and 42 PDCs. Our results show significant differences among efficiency scores in both groups and emphasize the importance of identifying efficient units. These efficient units can serve as benchmarks for learning, revealing the type of structures and processes that can be applied in other units in order to make them efficient and sustainable. Our results also show the utility of DEA as a tool to support decision-making in this company, as this technique can assist managers in the identification of the units that have the greatest potential to improve their performance. Furthermore, the fact that DEA allows the decomposition of efficiency in two components (pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency) is very useful in order to identify the type of restructuring that can be most efficacious in each unit. Lastly, a preliminary analysis of the impact of seasonality in the efficiency of the units revealed that this can be one of the factors that contribute to explaining variations in performance in some of the units. This result suggests that, in order to remain efficient, some units may need to adjust their capacity according to the season