Decision Support System

Decision Support System in US military

1. Discuss why was this DSS needed? And in your opinion, what are the factors contribute to the success of the DSS?

The deployment of US military forces to conduct operations other than war (OOTW) has become increasingly common over the past two decades. The deployment mission subsumes a critical and often under-performed task: set up and occupy a base camp that projects, sustains, and protects the force. Military operational-level planners currently lack a decision support tool that provides necessary information to aid the commander in determining the best locations for base camps.

Decisions on location are based primarily on tactical considerations, specifically the employment of tactical units given their OOTW mission. Once a unit arrives and occupies an assembly area, the location becomes, over time, a de facto base camp location. Additionally, military planners would benefit from a decision support tool that optimizes a facilities layout for a base camp. This paper presents our research in identifying base camp functions inherent to site-selection and facility layout decisions.

The Army is undergoing its largest transformational change since 1942, in an increasingly complex and uncertain strategic security environment. “We are leveraging over six years of protracted wartime experience with changes in doctrine, organizational component, modernization, reset programs and other overall changes affecting the footprint of our Army,” says Army Vice Chief of Staff, GEN Richard Cody, in his December 19, 2007 announcement to support the Army's growth. GEN Cody talked about transformation efforts leading to a “more agile and expeditionary force.”

The Army requires flexible, agile forces to conduct joint and multinational operations at any point across the spectrum of conflict. Operations in an era of persistent conflict and tension demand agility and consistency of information to support Resourcing decisions which affect the Army's centerpiece - our Soldiers. Such is the current transformation landscape which spans the institutional as well as the operational Army. The Army is focused on delivering a joint net-centric information enterprise by 2015.

The plan clearly identifies the need for simultaneously improving the Army's information infrastructure while implementing processes to improve the way we conduct and support war and keep the peace.

2. In your opinion what is the model based foundation of this DSS? Why? Discuss the role of forecasting in this DSS?

One initiative to support this requirement is the Army's Enterprise Management Decision Support (EMDS) system currently being designed to enable Situational Awareness and enhance the decision-making environment. It will be a web-enabled, software system that extracts Army data from multiple information systems, providing senior leaders with the ability to make more accurate, timely, transparent, reliable, holistic, enterprise-wide/cross functional decisions. Unlike systems which function as data repositories and provide static snapshots in time, EMDS will function as an interactive tool, supporting current decision making. Specifically, EMDS will:

* Allow decision-makers to define the parameters to be considered in examining a problem, and to develop multiple “what if” scenarios in order to rapidly evaluate different knowledge-based alternatives

* Provide the capability to quickly ...