An Analysis of the Demand Distributions for Selected Inertial Measurement Units in the Air Force Inventory

Abstract

Within the Air Force Logistics Command's Recoverable Item Requirements Computation System (D041), a simple Poisson demand distribution is assumed in order to forecast requirements and, thereby, to establish inventory levels for recoverable items. This study is pursuant to the question of the validity of this assumption. Detailed analysis of failure data for the FLIP, LN- 15, and KT-73 inertial measurement units revealed that the demand distribution for these items was not Poisson, but more generally, negative binomial. Use of a negative binomial demand distribution in the Variable Safety Level (VSL) portion of Do41, however, requires that the steady state probabilities for that demand distribution be computed. Thus far, this computation has proven to be intractable. Further research uncovered the possibility that a compounded form of the Poisson distribution might also describe the failure data, but research in this area was deferred because SIMFIT, the data analysis program used in the study, did not include subroutines to examine this sort of distribution.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1978
Accession Number
ADA059287

Entities

People

  • David R Johnson
  • Judith M. Mccoy

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Computer Programs
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Science
  • Databases
  • Descriptive Analytics
  • Guidance
  • Inertial Measurement Units
  • Inertial Navigation
  • Inertial Navigation Systems
  • Information Science
  • Logistics
  • Logistics Management
  • Measurement
  • Navigation
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Probability Distributions

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
  • Theoretical Analysis.