An organisation is reviewing the performance of its branches using data envelopment analysis. The data they have collected for these branches is shown below.

Branch

Number of Customer customers ('000) satisfaction

Number of employees

 22 18 23 13 17 23 

(9 marks) (7 marks)

score

1. A52.9 14.2
2. B48.9 14.8
3. C40.4 20.7
4. D11.4 12.0
5. E26.3 18.6
6. F35.2 21.2

For example branch E last year employed 17 people and had 26,300 customers. The customer satisfaction score is a measure of how satisfied a

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customer is with the branch (arrived at by surveying a random sample of customers, approximately 1% of the number of customers a branch has). The higher the satisfaction score, the more satisfied customers are. Branch E, for example, had a satisfaction score of 18.6.

(a) Apply data envelopment analysis to compare the relative performance of these branches using the data shown above. Copy the table shown below into your answer and fill in the efficiencies and reference sets (where appropriate).

Branch A

B

C

D

E

F

Efficiency

Reference set

(12 marks)

1. (b)In a discussion with a colleague as to your analysis they have noted that you have not included the fact that customer satisfaction is scored out of 25. They feel that this information should have been included in your analysis, and would have altered the results. What would you say to them?
2. (2 marks)
3. (c)Another colleague has argued that customer satisfaction score is a wrong measure to use and you should use total satisfaction, defined as the current customer satisfaction score multiplied by the number of customers. What would you say to them?
4. (5 marks)
5. (d)The company CEO feels that only sampling approximately 1% of the customers in a branch to get a customer satisfaction score is insufficient and could result in some branches being shown to be efficient when in fact they are inefficient; or branches being classified as inefficient when they are actually efficient. In support of their argument they have produced the new customer satisfaction scores shown below based on a larger sample. What would you say to them?

Branch Customer satisfaction score A13.1

B16.3

C19.2

D11.0E20.5F19.3

(6 marks)