4. Supply chain performance measures
An important component in supply chain design
and analysis is the establishment of appropriate performance
measures. A performance measure, or a set
of performance measures, is used to determine the
e¦ciency and/or e¤ectiveness of an existing system,
or to compare competing alternative systems. Performancemeasures
are also used to design proposed
systems, by determining the values of the decision
variables that yield the most desirable level(s) of
performance. Available literature identiÞes a number
of performance measures as important in the
evaluation of supply chain e¤ectiveness and e¦ciency.
These measures, described in this section, may be
categorized as either qualitative or quantitative.