Benchmarking of secondary schools based on students’ results in higher education

The performance of secondary schools is usually assessed based on students’ results on national exams at the end of secondary education. This research uses data on academic achievements by first-year univer- sity students to benchmark secondary schools on their ability to lead students to success in higher edu- cation. The analysis is conducted using data of University of Porto and Catholic University of Porto, Portu- gal, for a three-year period, corresponding to more than 10.0 0 0 students from 65 degrees, for which the school of origin is known. A number of variables representing students’ success in Higher education were constructed for each school in our sample and aggregated through a Benefit of the Doubt indicator. Re- sults suggest that the schools’ ranking based on schools’ ability to prepare students for university success is quite different from the ranking based on results on national exams. Given these findings, we propose complementing schools’ performance assessments (traditionally based on national exam results or indi- cators of value added) with indicators that account for the preparation of students for success in future challenges, which is indisputably a key objective of secondary education. We propose a composite indi- cator for the analysis of these complementary aims as well, and results show that frontier units indeed exhibit trade offs between traditional measures of performance and our new measure of performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Evaluation of performance of european cities with the aim to promote quality of life improvements

This paper explores the possibilities presented by DEA to assess quality of life and evaluate theperformance of city managers in what concerns the promotion of urban quality of life. Using the dataprovided by the Urban Audit program, from the European Union, we defined the city profile regardingquality of life for 206 cities. Two approaches are presented: the construction of a composite indicator ofquality of life and the assessment of local management performance, contextualised by the GDP percapita to measure the ability of local authorities to promote quality of life given the economic conditionof the country. The results identify the cities with urban best practices and present a model ofintervention for the cities considered inefficient, based on benchmarking principle

Water Utility Service Quality Index: A customer-centred approach for assessing the quality of service in the water sector

This work delves into the crucial role of service quality in the water supply and sanitation sector. Despite extensive research and implementation of quality management practices in this sector, a universally accepted definition of quality is still lacking, resulting in various service quality assessment procedures that are difficult to compare. To address this issue, the World Bank launched the ‘Utility of the Future’ (UoF) programme, aiming to guide water service providers in their efforts to become future-focused utilities that offer reliable, safe, inclusive, transparent, and responsive services through best-fit practices. Building upon the framework provided by the UoF programme, this study proposes the Water Utility Service Quality Index (WUSQI) - a composite indicator that reflects the quality of service provided by water supply and sanitation utilities from a customer perspective. Based on Data Envelopment Analysis, the Benefit-of-the-Doubt approach is employed to assign weights for aggregating the indicators representing the diverse performance dimensions. The study operationalises the WUSQI to assess the quality of Portuguese wholesale water and wastewater companies using data collected by the national regulator of water and waste services. A Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis technique, the Deck of Cards method, is used to specify an indicator of transparency from the information made available by the regulated utilities. The results show the effectiveness of this tool for evaluating and measuring service quality at the company level. Additionally, the findings highlight areas for improvement in the utilities’ performance. By enabling companies and regulators to identify areas for improvement, the WUSQI can support the delivery of high-quality services to customers

Benchmarking dos serviços dos hospitais portugueses: uma aplicação de data envelopment analysis

Neste artigo, apresentamos a aplicação de um modelo de Data Envelopment Analysis aos serviços de Medicina Interna da maioria dos hospitais do Serviço Nacional de Saúde Português, numa perspetiva de eficiência. O modelo de avaliação é apresentado para a generalidade dos serviços hospitalares, tendo os inputs e outputs sido escolhidos após análise dos seus impactos nos gastos globais dos diferentes serviços. Nesta aplicação impõem-se restrições aos pesos, por forma a evitar obter serviços com pesos pouco razoáveis para as variáveis do modelo. Observa-se que as maiores poupanças são possíveis nos medicamentos e material clínico. É feita uma comparação entre serviços eficientes e ineficientes, observando-se que os meios complementares de diagnóstico e terapêutica (recursos) e as variáveis de acesso aos cuidados (elementos da produção) são determinantes na definição do melhor desempenho dos serviços de Medicina Interna analisados.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

a frontier approach to benchmark the performance of countries worldwide

Vilarinho, H., Cubo, C., Sampaio, P., Saraiva, P., Reis, M., Nóvoa, H., & Camanho, A. S. (2022). World State of Quality: a frontier approach to benchmark the performance of countries worldwide. In ICQEM 2022 - 5th International Conference on Quality Engineering and Management: A Better World with Quality! Quality in the Digital Transformation (pp. 263-290). (International Conference on Quality Engineering and Management). CIEd /Universidade do Minho. --- The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology) through PhD research grants 2021.05244.BD and SFRH/BD/131285/2017. This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D UnitsPurpose - The World State of Quality (WSQ) Project aims to evaluate, analyse, rank and categorise countries according to their performance in quality as a multidimensional concept. The Project involves the computation of an overall score for each country, obtained as a weighted average of ranking positions of 16 metrics, with weights determined by a panel of experts. Methodology-This work proposes an alternative strategy for that procedure, using a Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) Composite Indicator approach under the framework of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This strategy avoids the need of using subjective weights and normalising data by rank positions, using a more objective procedure to obtain the countries’ ranking. A new overall score of the World State of Quality is proposed, which allows the categorisation of countries’ performance. The novel insights resulting from the use of this methodology are discussed, including the identification of strengths and weaknesses of the various countries, and the peers that can be used for facilitating continuous improvements policies. Findings - The results show that the BoD approach and the original method used by the WSQ Project present comparable results. Countries’ strengths and weaknesses and their suitable peers and targets for benchmarking are presented with illustrative examples. Originality/value – A novel frontier approach for countries’ benchmarking regarding their performance in quality is proposed, incorporating new insights into the current method.publishersversionpublishe

OTIMIZAÇÃO DE INVESTIMENTOS EM GESTÃO DE ATIVOS DE SISTEMAS DE ABASTECIMENTO DE ÁGUA UTILIZANDO O ÍNDICE DE VALOR DA INFRAESTRUTURA

The field of asset management provides a coordinated effort to extract value from physical assets, incorporating an integrated approach to deal with risks, costs and performance. This paper proposes an oriented approach to selecting infrastructure investment projects in an asset management framework. The standard metric used for project selection with multiple assets is the Infrastructure Value Index (IVI), which has been used to characterize water sector assets in several countries. Two mixed-integer linear programming models are developed in this paper. The first optimization model deals with a capital budget allocation problem that intends to select investment projects that maximize assets’ condition. The second optimization model deals with a budget planning problem aiming at minimizing the capital required to maintain the assets in the desired condition. The application of the models is illustrated by a case study of a company operating in the water sector in Portugal, namely in a pumping station from a water supply system. The results obtained in the different scenarios analysed are discussed with a view to supporting the design of more efficient asset management policies. A área de conhecimento associada à gestão de ativos potencia a extração de valor de ativos físicos, incorporando uma abordagem integrada que envolve riscos, custos e desempenho. Este trabalho propõe uma nova abordagem para selecionar projetos de investimento em infraestruturas no âmbito da gestão de ativos. A métrica padrão utilizada para a seleção de projetos em ativos múltiplos é o Índice de Valor de Infraestruturas (IVI), que tem sido utilizado para caracterizar ativos do setor de águas em diversos países. Este trabalho desenvolveu dois modelos de programação linear inteira mista. O primeiro modelo de otimização trata de um problema de alocação de orçamento de capital selecionando projetos de investimento com vista à maximização da condição dos ativos. O segundo modelo de otimização trata de um problema de planeamento de orçamento, visando minimizar o capital necessário para manter os ativos nas condições desejadas. A aplicação dos modelos é ilustrada por um estudo de caso de uma empresa que opera no setor da água em Portugal. Os resultados obtidos nos diferentes cenários analisados são discutidos com vista a apoiar o desenho de políticas de gestão de ativos mais eficientes

Data Envelopment Analysis: A Review and Synthesis

This chapter introduces the main concepts and models underlying the evaluation of efficiency using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. It starts with a historical overview of the origin of DEA models, including a brief description of the theory underlying the representation of the technology of production and the efficient frontier in DEA. The main models for evaluating efficiency are reviewed before discussing recent developments in the DEA literature. The chapter also includes a discussion of well-established and emerging areas of analysis. Successful applications of DEA, both for the support of organisations’ management and the design of public policies, are examined. In the end, some considerations regarding the role of efficiency assessment techniques in modern societies and opportunities for future developments are presented

Evaluation of performance of European cities with the aim to promote quality of life improvements

This paper explores the possibilities presented by DEA to assess quality of life and evaluate the performance of city managers in what concerns the promotion of urban quality of life. Using the data provided by the Urban Audit program, from the European Union, we defined the city profile regarding quality of life for 206 cities. Two approaches are presented: the construction of a composite indicator of quality of life and the assessment of local management performance, contextualised by the GDP per capita to measure the ability of local authorities to promote quality of life given the economic condition of the country. The results identify the cities with urban best practices and present a model of intervention for the cities considered inefficient, based on benchmarking principles.DEA Quality of life Urban Audit Virtual weight restrictions Composite indicators

An innovative benefit‐of‐the‐doubt approach for health system effectiveness: a global case study on amenable mortality

Health system performance assessment (HSPA) is essential for health planning and to improve population health. One of the HSPA domains is related to effectiveness, which can be represented considering different dimensions. Composite indicators can be used to summarize complex constructs involving several indicators. One example of such efforts is the Healthcare Access and Quality Index from the Global Burden of Diseases Study, in which different causes of mortality amenable to health care are summarized in this index through principal component analysis and exploratory factor analysis. While these approaches use the variance of the indicators, marginal improvement is not considered, that is, the distance to the best practice frontier. In this study we propose an innovative benefit-of-the-doubt approach to combine frontier analysis and composite indicators, using amenable mortality estimates for 188 countries. In particular, we include flexible aggregating weighting schemes and a robust and conditional approach. The dual formulation gives information on the peers and the potential mortality rate reduction targets considering the background conditions. In absolute terms, Andorra and high-income countries are the most effective regarding healthcare access and quality, while sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries are the least effective. North African and Middle Eastern countries benefit the most when epidemiological patterns, geographical proximity, and country development status are considered