Marine Corps Officer Assignments: There Has to Be a Better Way
Abstract
One of the most crucial aspects of the development and retention of quality officers in the Marine Corps is effective assignment. This thesis takes an innovative approach to an old problem by proposing a technical solution: the Ground Officer Assignment Tool (GOAT) offers an optimization-based decision aid as well as a means by which to evaluate an existing personnel assignment based on several metrics. As a single commodity network flow problem, the GOAT tackles the personnel assignment problem using Python-based computational software packages. The model uses weighted penalties for the attributes of each assignment to calculate a cost for that assignment. The GOAT then minimizes those costs based on user-defined inputs and assigns each Marine to his or her optimal billet. With the added flexibility of testing multiple sample solutions in a short period of time and seeing the comparative cost, the GOAT can save monitors vast amounts of time while better equipping them to make crucial decisions that drive the efficiency of officer assignments. This thesis introduces a system that can aid in data processing with the intended purpose of better arming monitors, who are almost solely responsible for the effective assignment of Marine Corps officers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1073580
Entities
People
- David P. Alger
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School