Course loading optimization

As of 2014, the Naval Personnel Training Group (NPTG) became responsible for all Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) schools. The initial review conducted by the NPTG staff looked at the staff-to-student ratios, which revealed that there were potential inefficiencies that may have increased the cost of school operations. The authors were asked by the NPTG to conduct a detailed review of the course loading, defined as the number of students that are enrolled for a given course, and identify optimal loading to ensure that a) the RCN personnel gets the required training, b) the course loading is within the estimated minimum and maximum number of required students for each course, and c) the overhead in terms of staff and resource requirements is minimized. The analysis was conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, the main inefficiencies were identified; these included duplicate and excess courses, and courses with insufficient enrollment. The results proposed restructuring the offered courses in order to meet the demand while eliminating excess. The minimum and maximum enrollment for each course was combined with the historical data to obtain these results. In Phase 2, the course loading was further optimized with respect to resource utilization while considering constraints in terms of student demand and resource supply