Accession Number:

ADA361723

Title:

The Quota Allocation Model: The Linear Optimization of a Markov Decision Process

Descriptive Note:

Master's thesis

Corporate Author:

AIR FORCE INST OF TECH WRIGHT-PATTERSONAFB OH SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Personal Author(s):

• Brown, David A.

Report Date:

1999-03-01

Pagination or Media Count:

99.0

Abstract:

One of the many needs of the Air Force is advanced technical degrees. These degrees can be acquired in three ways the Air Force can directly recruit personnel with the required degrees Air Force personnel can obtain them during off duty time from local civilian colleges near their base or the Air Force can provide advanced academic degrees AADs through the Air Force Institute of Technology AFIT or AFIT-sponsored programs. In 1995, the AFIT Commandant initiated a re-engineering study to review the AFIT mission. One of the initiatives of that study was the Quota Allocation Model QuAM. The QuAM model is a two-phase mathematical model based on a Markov process that is used to feed a linear optimization. Outputs from the model provide the minimum number of officers, by grade and academic specialty, that must be educated annually to meet the needs and requirements of the Air Force in each of the Air Force education codes. This thesis effort entails developing a user-friendly tool migrating the model from lines of FORTRAN 77 code to an Excel spreadsheet environment highlighting the assumptions necessitated by the Markov decision process and testing for sensitivity to variations in model input parameters AAD requirements, attrition, and inventory factors.

Descriptors:

• *MATHEMATICAL MODELS
• *AIR FORCE PERSONNEL
• *MARKOV PROCESSES
• MILITARY REQUIREMENTS
• OPTIMIZATION
• HUMAN RESOURCES
• LINEAR PROGRAMMING
• ATTRITION
• THESES
• REGRESSION ANALYSIS
• AIR FORCE TRAINING
• INVENTORY CONTROL
• OFFICER PERSONNEL

Subject Categories:

• Operations Research
• Personnel Management and Labor Relations

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE