The proposed work will deliver a manpower, personnel, and training (MPT) modelling and management system in software. The system will be designed primarily for the multiple job context but will also handle the single job context as a special case. Emphasis will be placed on trade-off analysis, among different outcome criteria as well as among different determinants of a common outcome criterion. Phase II will actually result in two deliverables. The first is a stand-alone package for use in personnel situations characterized by many jobs, small quotas (often just one person), and many constraints on who can be assigned where. This first package is focused primarily on constraint satisfaction, that is, on assignments that meet all rules, regulations, individual preferences, and other requirements or desiderata as well as possible. The second and more complex package is intended for use in personnel situations characterized by large numbers of people to be assigned, few job categories, and many individuals to be assigned in each job category. This second package will contain all the functionality of the first but, in addition, have a major focus on the prediction and maximization of job performance. The second package will not stand alone but will make use of other computer programs, some of them commercially available but others to be developed for Phase II.
Benefits: Manpower, personnel, and training problems are ubiquitous. All military agencies and commercial companies have them. Yet no commercial application currently exists specifically designed to facilitate their solution, especially for the multiple job context. Of course, many all-purpose statistical packages already exist. These packages, however, have limited usefulness for MPT purposes. We believe, therefore, that the proposed software will find widespread use in both military and commercial sectors.
