Total life cycle management - assessment tool: an exploratory analysis

• Main Author: Young, Brad
• Other Authors: Lucas, Thomas W.
• Published: Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2008. 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/10353

It is essential for the Marine Corps to ensure the successful supply, movement and maintenance of an armed force in peacetime and combat. Integral to an effective, long-term logistics plan is the ability to accurately forecast future requirements to sustain materiel readiness. Total Life Cycle Management Assessment Tool (TLCM-AT) is a simulation tool combining operations, maintenance, and logistics. This exploratory analysis gives insight into the factors used by TLCM-AT beyond the tool s embedded analytical utilities. A Java program is developed to automate multiple changes to TLCM-AT s database, execute simulation runs and record output data. A scenario deploying LAV-25 vehicles to a tropical region, with three courses of action, provides the basis for analysis. The research provides a description of the analysis available by TLCM-AT as a stand-alone tool, and concludes with how design of experiments (DOE) expands insights gained. This thesis provides a framework for using DOE with TLCM-AT, identifies a structured use of TLCM-AT for decision makers, and provides enhancements that enable more effective use of TLCM-AT. Results indicate no practical change in operational availability (Ao) when varying five factors, using 129 design points and 15,480 replications. The factors adjusted are: spares, depot capacity, induction quantity, part repair time and part degradation time. Results also reveal synergies between the modeled factors and numbers of spares to be the dominant factor Ao.