The paper investigates excesses and deficits in Chinese industrial productivity for the years (1953-1990), by combining data envelopment analysis (DEA) with other management science approaches. Improvement factors are examined with the incorporation of a priori information through Delphi, AHP and assurance region (AR) techniques. Various multiple input and multiple output sets are selected to study overall performance, industrial development, and product-related efficiency of Chinese industry. The application also identifies factors that affect the productivity of China's industry in a positive or negative way, i.e., simultaneously identifies both excesses and deficits. Furthermore, the impact of economic reforms and five-year plans is discussed. The current study demonstrates that DEA can be combined with other methods to yield more valid results, insights and recommendations such as: (1) Chinese industrial productivity increased as a result of the five-year plans; (2) the economic reforms changed the behaviour of the enterprises; (3) efficient and effective targets within the industrial development plans can be set, and corrections and revisions can be made; and (4) enterprises should be given more decision-making autonomy in production as well as investment.