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Evaluation Of Rsaf Airworthiness And Applicability, Majed M. Altowairqi Sep 2018

Evaluation Of Rsaf Airworthiness And Applicability, Majed M. Altowairqi

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on evaluation of Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) airworthiness processes and their applicability. The current RSAF airworthiness process is in accordance with internationally recognized best practice in the area of military aviation, this is achieved by benchmarking against European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. Airworthiness policy for the RSAF is developed on the basis that it will be as civil as possible and as military as necessary. For the purpose of this research, the current RSAF airworthiness process will be benchmarked against the United States Air Force (USAF) airworthiness process. That …


Breaking Down The Barriers To Operator Workload Estimation: Advancing Algorithmic Handling Of Temporal Non-Stationarity And Cross-Participant Differences For Eeg Analysis Using Deep Learning, Ryan G. Hefron Sep 2018

Breaking Down The Barriers To Operator Workload Estimation: Advancing Algorithmic Handling Of Temporal Non-Stationarity And Cross-Participant Differences For Eeg Analysis Using Deep Learning, Ryan G. Hefron

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on two barriers to using EEG data for workload assessment: day-to-day variability, and cross- participant applicability. Several signal processing techniques and deep learning approaches are evaluated in multi-task environments. These methods account for temporal, spatial, and frequential data dependencies. Variance of frequency- domain power distributions for cross-day workload classification is statistically significant. Skewness and kurtosis are not significant in an environment absent workload transitions, but are salient with transitions present. LSTMs improve day- to-day feature stationarity, decreasing error by 59% compared to previous best results. A multi-path convolutional recurrent model using bi-directional, residual recurrent layers significantly increases …


Methods To Support The Project Selection Problem With Non-Linear Portfolio Objectives, Time Sensitive Objectives, Time Sensitive Resource Constraints, And Modeling Inadequacies, Neil C. Ranly Sep 2018

Methods To Support The Project Selection Problem With Non-Linear Portfolio Objectives, Time Sensitive Objectives, Time Sensitive Resource Constraints, And Modeling Inadequacies, Neil C. Ranly

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force relies upon information production activities to gain insight regarding uncertainties affecting important system configuration and in-mission task execution decisions. Constrained resources that prevent the fulfillment of every information production request, multiple information requestors holding different temporal-sensitive objectives, non-constant marginal value preferences, and information-product aging factors that affect the value-of-information complicate the management of these activities. This dissertation reviews project selection research related to these issues and presents novel methods to address these complications. Quantitative experimentation results demonstrate these methods’ significance.


Shop Around: An Experiment On Air Force Vehicle Parts Procurement, Melvin K. Boothe Mar 2018

Shop Around: An Experiment On Air Force Vehicle Parts Procurement, Melvin K. Boothe

Theses and Dissertations

Current procurement processes for vehicle parts vary substantially across the Air Force. Many of these parts are "commercial off-the-shelf" items that are procured through local vendors via a government purchase card. Understanding what guidance dictates various purchasing processes and how that guidance affects the behavior of purchasers is unknown. A mixed method approach of semi-structured interviews of purchasers at multiple bases and an experimental survey testing different sets of guidance are used to understand the effects of guidance, as well as produce recommendations for action and future research for leaders at the local and headquarters levels.


Parametric Survival Analysis Of Us Air Force Rated Officer Retention, Jacob R. Lindell Mar 2018

Parametric Survival Analysis Of Us Air Force Rated Officer Retention, Jacob R. Lindell

Theses and Dissertations

Personnel retention is a very important topic in both the private and public sectors. Not only do companies need to make sure they have the right people, they need to have the right amount of people. Within the public sector, specifically the US Air Force, maintaining appropriate manning comes in two phases; bringing in the right amount of people each year, and retaining enough people from year to year. These two aspects go hand in hand; if the Air Force knows how many people they will lose in a given year, they can bring in the exact number of people …


Not All Tons Are Created Equal; Analyzing Aerial Port Capability To Define The Working Ton, Casey L. Owens Mar 2018

Not All Tons Are Created Equal; Analyzing Aerial Port Capability To Define The Working Ton, Casey L. Owens

Theses and Dissertations

United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) along with Air Mobility Command (AMC) provide airlift assets that accomplish thousands of missions around the world every week for cargo distribution. The current unit of measure is a short ton, which is the primary metric used in decision making. However, the short ton measurement does not adequately predict the amount of work necessary to properly prepare different cargo types for airlift. Utilizing the short ton metric leads to inadequate forecasting times for cargo preparation and aircraft loading, which leads to delayed missions. The root of the problem is that the metric used does not …


Investigating Capability Development Management For The Air Force Strategic Development Planning And Experimentation (Spde) Office, Sarah M. Pak Mar 2018

Investigating Capability Development Management For The Air Force Strategic Development Planning And Experimentation (Spde) Office, Sarah M. Pak

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force provides unique capabilities for the defense of our nation. Capabilities do not come to fruition instantly; they must go through a development process. Managing the development of a capability is a difficult but necessary task. In 2016, a report from the Air Force Studies Board prompted the Air Force to focus on the Capability Development Process and its improvement. In response to the report, the Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation (SDPE) Office was formed. The SDPE Office is tasked to support Enterprise Capability Collaboration Teams (ECCTs), which are, in turn, tasked to research and solve prominent issues …


Evaluating The Air Force Inspection System, Luis D. Rosado-Medina Mar 2018

Evaluating The Air Force Inspection System, Luis D. Rosado-Medina

Theses and Dissertations

SAF/IG implemented the Air Force Inspection System (AFIS) in 2013 following a USAFE pilot study into its potential for implementation across the Air Force. Using responsive constructive evaluation and content analysis of interviews as a methodology, AFIS was evaluated against the objectives laid out in AFPAD13-01. 18 interviews were conducted on 4 stakeholder groups across the inspection enterprise, which resulted in 4 overarching themes: Culture Shifts, Self-Assessment, Higher Headquarters Relationships, and PAD Objectives. This research allows SAF/IG to implement changes to future versions of AFIS that incorporates views from the field.


Analysis Of Influences Of Separation Decisions In The Financial Management Career Field, Shauna Young Mar 2018

Analysis Of Influences Of Separation Decisions In The Financial Management Career Field, Shauna Young

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to analyze influences on separation decisions of active duty Air Force financial management officers. Researchers tested nine variables to determine their separation implications. The tested variables were major command, age, prior enlisted service, spouse, commissioning source, AFIT cost analysis master’s degrees, engagement, crystallization of job alternatives, and exhaustion. Results proved that age, prior enlisted service, having a spouse, and being an Air Force Academy or AFIT graduate correlates to whether a financial management officer will separate from the Air Force. In addition, the engagement level or having a defined list of job alternatives readily …


Flightline Heroics And The Façade Of A Healthy Common Support Equipment Fleet, Benjamin D. Bobic Mar 2018

Flightline Heroics And The Façade Of A Healthy Common Support Equipment Fleet, Benjamin D. Bobic

Theses and Dissertations

Access to serviceable support equipment enables aircraft maintenance crews the ability to efficiently keep assigned aircraft safe and mission capable. Current Air Force policy does not require formal management and enterprise fleet health reporting of serialized support equipment. As such, articulating funding requirements to replace equipment has been a challenge for equipment managers. To better articulate support equipment requirements, equipment managers need quantifiable support equipment data. A previous study examined the relationship between aircraft availability and support equipment availability. While finding no significant correlation, the author identifies the practices of "Frankensteining" and "Beg-Borrow-Steal" as possible reasons for the absence of …


Strategic Sourcing Via Category Management: Helping Air Force Installation Contracting Agency Eat One Piece Of The Elephant, Theodore S. Holliger Mar 2018

Strategic Sourcing Via Category Management: Helping Air Force Installation Contracting Agency Eat One Piece Of The Elephant, Theodore S. Holliger

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force can dramatically reduce resource consumption through strategic sourcing initiatives that leverage sensibly-bound pockets of spend via category management. However, category creation is a particularly daunting task due to the sheer magnitude of purchasing data in large organizations. Text mining is one way to identify categories. Specifically, term frequency analysis, term frequency-inverse document frequency analysis, and topic modeling can identify category membership, unique characteristics of categories, and thematic natures of the categories. This thesis developed an empirical, generalizable, reproducible methodology to analyze historical contract text descriptions to uncover the data’s hidden structure. A sample case was …


How A Conducive Environment And Susceptible Followers Influence Toxic Leadership Behaviors In The Air Force: An Examination Of The Toxic Triangle Theory, Rachel S. Beightel Mar 2018

How A Conducive Environment And Susceptible Followers Influence Toxic Leadership Behaviors In The Air Force: An Examination Of The Toxic Triangle Theory, Rachel S. Beightel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to determine what characteristics of the Air Force’s environment and Airmen perpetuate toxic leadership behaviors. This survey study was designed, using the toxic triangle theory, to evaluate the toxic leadership behaviors, susceptible follower traits, and conducive environment characteristics participants have experienced in the Air Force. The study applied ordinary least squares path analysis to determine the influence susceptible followers and characteristics of a conducive environment have on toxic leadership behaviors in the Air Force. Results revealed that collusive followers have a direct influence on toxic leadership. While only two characteristics of a conducive environment …


Resilient Aircraft Maintenance Constructs: Enhancing Repair Network Designs To Effectively Manage Risks And Supply Chain Interruptions, Thomas S. Bihansky Mar 2018

Resilient Aircraft Maintenance Constructs: Enhancing Repair Network Designs To Effectively Manage Risks And Supply Chain Interruptions, Thomas S. Bihansky

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to extend the understanding of supply chain resiliency by utilizing a simulation model of a U.S. Air Force aircraft engine repair network to evaluate the degree of resiliency built into the system. The study compares the recovery time of the disrupted current system to that of a fully-integrated repair network; the objective being the quantification of resiliency in the current networks design and gauging the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing recovery time. This contributes to current literature by bridging the explicit gap on how to quantify, measure, and compare resilient supply chain strategies and also provides …


C-130j Inventory Control Point Location Determination, Joshua P. Casey Mar 2018

C-130j Inventory Control Point Location Determination, Joshua P. Casey

Theses and Dissertations

Since the first C-130J delivery in 1999, Lockheed Martin has managed the USAF’s C-130J “peculiar” parts inventory at Keesler AFB. Now with 193 aircraft assigned to 17 operating locations across the globe, effective supply chain management and recognized cost savings are essential components to mission success and fleet longevity. Previous research within the area of location analysis has shown that minimizing the average weighted distance of shipping products can assist in cost reduction efforts. Due to this, the goal of this study is to determine if alternative CONUS C-130J locations can be utilized as the Inventory Control Point to help …


Improving Personnel Selection Through Value Focused Thinking, Joshua D. Deehr Mar 2018

Improving Personnel Selection Through Value Focused Thinking, Joshua D. Deehr

Theses and Dissertations

Personnel selection has always and will continue to be a challenging endeavor for the military special operations. They want to select the best out of a number of qualified applicants. How an organization determines what makes a successful candidate and how to compare candidates against each other are some of the difficulties that top tier organizations like the special operations face. Value focused thinking (VFT) places criteria in a hierarchal structure and quantifies the values with criteria measurements, known as a decision model. The selection process can be similar to a college selecting their students. This research used college student …


Supply Chain Financial Analysis In Support Of International Development Objectives, Michael J. Hester Mar 2018

Supply Chain Financial Analysis In Support Of International Development Objectives, Michael J. Hester

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the 21st century, the Department of Defense has carried the burden in combatting extremist ideologies around the globe, spending an estimated $4.79 trillion fighting wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan. A recognition of the unsustainable nature of fighting such long-term, costly wars has led U.S. national security policy to shift in recent years towards combatting extremism through economic development and building capacity in less stable communities around the globe. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is the government agency responsible for achieving this objective, yet USAID acknowledges that many of the supply chains the agency finances are …


Flexibility – Designing For Optionality On Warehouse Modernization Projects, Stephen T. Lane Mar 2018

Flexibility – Designing For Optionality On Warehouse Modernization Projects, Stephen T. Lane

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense relies upon a vast network logistics facilities and capabilities across the planet. Assets are largely sourced from the Defense Logistics Agency, which is considering a modernization project for their Eastern Distribution Center (EDC). It handles 25% of all materials that DLA supplies, and the facility is antiquated. In order to maximize their investment, flexible options for the modernization should be considered. This research was conducted as a case study of the EDC in order to develop a framework of flexibility for DoD decision makers going forward. This case study gathers subject matter expert knowledge from government …


A Study Of Military Health Care Costs: Direct Versus Purchased Care In A Geographical Region, Lindsey N. Mcevoy Mar 2018

A Study Of Military Health Care Costs: Direct Versus Purchased Care In A Geographical Region, Lindsey N. Mcevoy

Theses and Dissertations

Health care expenses are one of the largest contributing factors to increased personnel costs, the fastest-rising component of the Department of Defense's budget. This research examines the cost implications of developing a new military treatment facility in a specified geographical region, in an effort to reduce military health care spending. Care received at a military treatment facility is referred to as direct care, while care received in the private sector is referred to as purchased care. This research leverages existing information on direct and purchased medical care to gain insights into the workload costs for medical care in a geographical …


Cultivating Agile Organizational Culture: Addressing Resistance To Change In Bureaucratic Government Organizations, Michael P. Mclane Mar 2018

Cultivating Agile Organizational Culture: Addressing Resistance To Change In Bureaucratic Government Organizations, Michael P. Mclane

Theses and Dissertations

Resistance to change is a phenomenon that affects organizations almost universally. All organizations large and small are continuously challenged to adjust, evolve and innovate to gain or maintain competitive advantage and mission effectiveness. Alarmingly high failure rates are reported: 30-70% of change initiatives falling short of their prescribed intent or never attain the desired results. This research investigates how bureaucratic governmental organizations can address this truth, and how leadership can cultivate a flexible, agile culture that is more adaptable to the demands of constant change. This study uses case study methodology and qualitative research methods aid in the understanding of …


Critical Issues In The Air Force Medical Equipment Procurement Process, Samuel H. Pang Mar 2018

Critical Issues In The Air Force Medical Equipment Procurement Process, Samuel H. Pang

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force medical logistics community relies on multiple contracting offices to acquire medical equipment for the Air Force Medical Service. The perception is that burdensome regulations contribute to the challenges faced in the procurement process. This research takes a broader examination to understand the factors leading to long lead times and delayed procurements. Process mapping and interviews with the key stakeholders supporting medical equipment procurement determined that the critical issues were a lack of centralized medical equipment contracting authority, insufficient market research and inconsistent local knowledge on contracting processes. This research provides future recommendations for the Air Force Medical …


Band Of Brothers… And Sisters: Developing A Strategy For Integrating Women Into The Combat Rescue Officer Career Field, Samantha R. Bryan Mar 2018

Band Of Brothers… And Sisters: Developing A Strategy For Integrating Women Into The Combat Rescue Officer Career Field, Samantha R. Bryan

Theses and Dissertations

As of 1 January 2016, across the Department of Defense, every combat position was opened to females. Currently, the Combat Rescue Officer (CRO) career field has not had any women attempt the training requirements in order to become fully qualified. To prepare for this integration of women into an all-male career field, leadership needs to understand the current perception of the CROs that are in the field now. This paper presents a foundation for the development of an assimilation strategy, by triangulating the insights from a sample of CROs, historical documents and researcher observations to produce recommendations for success. The …