Streamlining Cost Estimation for Large Department of Defense Organizations
Abstract
Manpower decisionmakers need to be able to produce consistent and repeatable cost estimates to understand the budget implications of alternative total force mixes. For this study, we created a prototype tool that uses data from the Office of the Secretary of Defense Full Cost of Manpower (FCoM) model, which includes cost factors, such as compensation, health care, recruiting, and training. The prototype tool expands on FCoM by creating a method to streamline cost estimation for large U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, providing summaryoutput in the form of graphs and tables, and allowing the user to run various scenarios in which billet counts are changed and the effect on cost can be observed. In this report, we describe the prototype tool and demonstrate its utility on a hypothetical organization to show how it could be used when determining costs for a real organization. Although it is still only a prototype, and therefore not available for distribution, with additional development, this tool would be useful for DoD and service personnel involved in manpower policy and decisionmaking and the broader DoD research community. We close with a discussion of ways this prototype tool can be developed further and how it might be distributed to maximize accessibility.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1126530
Entities
People
- Chuck Stelzner
- David Knapp
- Hannah Acheson-field
- Molly F. Mcintosh
Organizations
- RAND Corporation