| Article ID: | iaor20022373 |
| Country: | United States |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Start Page Number: | 73 |
| End Page Number: | 80 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 1997 |
| Journal: | Military Operations Research |
| Authors: | Dietz Dennis C. |
In the aftermath of the Cold War, the Air Force has undergone significant organizational changes and force reductions. These actions motivated a major re-engineering study of graduate education operations of the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Lt Col Dietz describes an analytical model that was developed to determine the minimum number of officers that must enter MS or PhD programs each year in order to consistently satisfy all personnel requirements (by academic specialty, degree level, and grade) at minimum cost. The model is formulated as a Markov decision process and solved using linear programming. The model results formed the basis for a specific plan to modify the AFIT personnel structure. Annual cost savings of at least $2.4 million are anticipated.