identifying the status of flexible intermediate measures as the input and output variables in measuring the efficiency of two-stage network dea

In measuring the efficiency of the network data envelopment analysis (dea)systems, it is assumed that the intermediate measures are outputs to the first stage andinputs to the second stage. this study examines the situations in which the second stageis not capable of accepting all intermediate measures produced by the first stage, so thatif the second stage fully utilizes intermediate measures as inputs, in most cases itproduces undesirable outputs, and this will reduce the efficiency score of system, whichit has not been discussed in previous studies of network dea so far. this study presentsa method for identifying the status of intermediate measures between two stages inmeasuring the efficiency of sub-decision making units (sub-dmus) and decisionmaking units (dmus), which it can accurately determine the capacity of the secondstage to consume the intermediate measures as the inputs for producing the finaloutputs, while the intermediate measures are outputs to the first stage in the networkdea systems. an applied example of meat products industry in iran shows theapplicability of the approach.