Date of Award

3-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Operations Research

Department

Department of Operational Sciences

First Advisor

James T. Moore, PhD

Abstract

The United States Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) is responsible for efficiently transporting military personnel and cargo throughout the world. Organizations throughout the transportation system search for ways to decrease cargo transportation time as part of their ongoing mission to provide timely airlift services to the DoD. As cargo is transported through the transportation system it is in one of two states; waiting at an air base for transportation or in some phase of the loading, transportation, or unloading process. The loading and unloading process has been streamlined throughout the transportation system to a point which leaves little room for significant improvement in terms of total transportation time. However, decreasing the average time pallets wait for a transportation aircraft, called the port hold time (PHT), is a difficult problem which is currently receiving attention. The DoD has invested in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to provide in-transit visibility (ITV) of all cargo moving through the transportation system. In many ways ITV has made cargo transportation much more efficient but its capability to measure and characterize cargo flow through the system has not been fully exploited. The purpose of this research is to create a Microsoft Excel application which utilizes RFID data to quantify and analyze cargo velocity in the Iraqi theater. The transportation system is analyzed at the pallet level to reveal which specific air bases and transportation methods cause lengthy cargo delays. Pallet PHT data is processed and reported using Statistical Process Control (SPC) methods including control and Pareto charts.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GOR-ENS-08-20

DTIC Accession Number

ADA480294

Download

Share

COinS