Optimal use of German Army maintenance resources
By:  Joerg Wellbrink
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 65
Description: The German Army's maintenance branch has lost 25 percent of its soldiers since the end of the cold war. The      maintenance branch has insufficient military personnel within maintenance units to maintain all combat unit      equipment. The Army, therefore, purchases civilian man hours (mhrs) to satisfy some required maintenance.      This thesis develops a mixed integer linear program, named ADOPT (administrative order optimizer), to      optimally assign combat unit equipment to maintenance units and to distribute a budget to purchase civilian      mhrs. ADOPT also determines beneficial cross-training of soldiers from one maintenance type to another.      Since it is not always possible to maintain all combat unit equipment, ADOPT minimizes the gap, prioritized by      equipment types, between needed maintenance mhrs and available military and civilian maintenance mhrs.      ADOPT provides a tool to determine and evaluate options and principles that impact the readiness of a      German Army Division's materiel. ADOPT validates its effectiveness with data of Military District VIII'      Mechanized Infantry Division. Results indicate a potential budget saving of one-third when cross- training of      maintenance soldiers from one maintenance type to another is allowed. ADOPT also shows that the regional      principle (as-signing common combat unit equipment to the nearest maintenance units) is inefficient.
Notes: "March 1998."

Thesis advisor(s): Robert F. Dell.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research) Naval Postgraduate School, March 1998.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat reader.

German Army author.

dk/dk cc:9116 8/18/98.