AN ANALYSIS OF THE MARINE CORPS DEPOT-LEVEL MAINTENANCE BUDGETING MODEL

The Marine Corps relies on advanced ground equipment that requires significant depot-level maintenance to extend its life cycle. However, Marine Corps budgets continue to be strained, and every dollar counts. Therefore, the Marine Corps Logistics Command has a vested interest in optimizing its budget to provide the best possible support to the warfighter. The Repair Optimization Materiel Evaluator (ROME) model is used to assist in creating repair plans. Using data-farming software designed specifically for this thesis and advanced design of experiments, the ROME model was run more than 2,000 times with specific, traceable, and repeatable changes made to the inputs each time. The outputs from these runs were analyzed to determine the model’s efficacy. Analysis determined that the model’s reliance on warfighting values and small penalty terms has created a bias toward allocating funds for high-density, low-cost items with low warfighting values at the expense of items with much higher warfighting values. Specifically, if monies were allocated only according to the ROME model, it would default to fixing thousands of M-16 rifles and rifle optics and very few, if any, large pieces of equipment such as tanks. Based on the findings from this thesis, it is recommended that ROME’s objective function be reformulated or calculation of warfighting values be changed. The new data farming capabilities will allow testing these modifications as well as enable advanced analysis with ROME.Marine Corps Logistics Commandhttp://archive.org/details/ananalysisofthem1094562828Captain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited