A Systems approach to planning large training operations for Army Units : visualization and optimization of multicommodity networks

Abstract

The US Army pours a multitude of time and resources to ensure a combat brigade is ready to deploy to a theater of combat and has established two premiere training sites in the US for that purpose. In contrast, homestation units do not have a dedicated opposing force unit and must therefore resource from within to maximize effective and efficient training prior to their deployment to one of the Army's two top training facilities. It is imperative that brigades develop processes to enable better training, resource management, and can expeditiously achieve a training objective in preparation for deployment. This thesis uses available systems tools to build a network of the 4 TH Infantry Division mission readiness exercise conducted in June of 2015, provide graphical depictions of the system itself, and seeks to find an optimum solution for both operating costs and time. Through the application of multicommodity modeling, a decrease of time and operating cost was achieved, 11.04% and 25.85% respectively. Additionally, future work may discover further benefits to increase resource management and speed of execution via the multicommodity flow modeling during the planning phase of a brigade-size training exercise. The analysis conducted in this thesis is meant to enhance the military decision making process and cannot replace the requisite critical thinking required by planners at the brigade level and above.