Officer Distribution Projection System: Prototype Development

Abstract : When Navy officers are reassigned to new billets (jobs), reassignment must allow for each officer's career needs and preferences, while meeting overall Navy manning goals and readiness requirements. Individual assignment decisions are difficult to coordinate with Navy manning plans because there is no method translate long-range targets into policy guidelines for short-term assignment decisions. Short-term assignment decisions made with incomplete information may not attain long-term goals. The objective of this research was to develop a prototype officer distribution projection (ODPROJ) computer model to project and allocate officeres by grade skill type, and CNO manning priorities, thereby improving the match of officer skills to billet requirements. The ODPROJ system is a first step in the development of an automated officer distribution management system (ODMS). ODPROJ is designed to provide essential distribution planning information, including billet projections, officer inverntory projections, and an aggregate allocation of officer skill groups to billet composites. Naval Military Personnel Command testing of the ODPROJ prototype will initiate necessary model refinements and modifications. A companion monitoring system will provide assignment information updates to ODPROJ and track achievement of allocation goals.