Sense and Respond Logistics Integrating Prediction, Responsiveness, and Control Capabilities

by Tripp, Robert S.; Amouzegar, Mahyar A.; McGarvey, Ronald G.; Bereit, Rick; George, David

• ISBN13: 9780833039781
• ISBN10: 0833039784
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-15
• Publisher: RAND Corporation

Summary

This monograph discusses U.S. Air Force progress toward implementing sense and respond logistics or, as defined more broadly, sense and respond combat support. It describes some of the research that has been conducted on the military combat support system, focusing on improvements in prediction capability, responsiveness of supply chains, and a governing command and control system. The report identifies the elements of sense and respond combat support and shows what is necessary to use the concept within the military-specifically, the Air Force. It surveys the state of technology needed to Implement the concept and identifies both the technical work that needs to be further developed and the Air Force organization most appropriate to manage the implementation. The capabilities described involve predicting what will be needed and responding quickly to anticipated or unanticipated needs. The monograph points out the need for both predictive tools and responsive systems working together. A key enabler of sense and response combat support is combat support command and control, which involves joint development of a plan in which logistics process performance and resource levels are related to desired operational effects; establishment of logistics process performance and resource-level control parameters; execution of the plan and tracking of control parameters against actual process performance and resource levels; signaling process owners when their processes lie outside control limits; and replanning logistics or operational components of the plan to mitigate the portions of the plan that are outside control limits. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. iii
Figures	p. xiii
Tables	p. xv
Summary	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxiii
Abbreviations	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
The Air and Space Expeditionary Force Construct	p. 2
An Expeditionary Force Requires Agile Combat Support	p. 2
CSC2: An Important Part of ACS and Enabler of S&RCS	p. 6
A New Vision	p. 8
Defining Sense and Respond Combat Support	p. 10
A Military Idea Turned Commercial	p. 12
Organization of This Monograph	p. 13
The CSC2 Operational Architecture	p. 15
The USAFE Centralized Intermediate Repair Facility-A Recent Example	p. 16
High-Level CSC2 Processes	p. 17
Feedback Loops	p. 18
Continuous Monitoring of Important Parameters	p. 20
Continuously Updated Data Systems Are Needed	p. 21
Standing Combat Support Organizations	p. 24
Commander of the Air Force Forces Staff Forward and Rear	p. 24
Logistics Support Centers	p. 25
Commodity Control Points	p. 25
Combat Support Center	p. 27
Estimating and Budgeting for Requirements	p. 27
The Planning Processes	p. 28
Deliberate Planning	p. 28
Crisis Action Planning	p. 31
The Programming and Budgeting Processes	p. 31
The Role of Commodity Control Points in Budgeting	p. 32
The Execution Processes	p. 33
Deployment	p. 33
Employment/Sustainment	p. 34
Capability Assessment and Reporting	p. 34
Assessing Performance Shortfalls	p. 35
Information Security and the Access to Information	p. 36
Tools and Technology Requirements for Sense and Respond Combat Support	p. 37
The Office of Force Transformation Program	p. 38
Sense and Respond Technical Requirements	p. 40
Radio Frequency Identification	p. 41
Software Agents and Agent-Based Modeling	p. 43
What Is an Agent?	p. 43
Agent-Based Modeling	p. 45
Applications of Agents and Agent-Based Modeling	p. 45
Exploring Sensitivity to Assumptions and Random Variations in Behavior	p. 47
Exploring Cooperation and Competition in Organizations	p. 47
Agent-Based Modeling for Sense and Respond Logistics	p. 48
DoD S&RL Initiatives	p. 49
DARPA Research and Development	p. 50
S&RL Demonstration-U.S. Army	p. 51
Coalition Agent eXperiment	p. 51
Map Aware Non-Uniform Automata	p. 52
S&RL Information Technology Prototype	p. 52
Human Factor Aspects of S&RL	p. 54
Autonomic Logistics	p. 55
Commercial and University Initiatives	p. 56
IBM Sense and Respond Programs and Technology	p. 56
General Electric	p. 57
SAP	p. 58
General Motors OnStar	p. 59
Robotics Institute-Carnegie Mellon University	p. 60
Agent Technology Today and Tomorrow	p. 61
Air Force CSC2 Implementation Effort	p. 65
Status of Implementation Actions	p. 66
C2 Doctrine	p. 66
Organizations and Processes	p. 67
Operations Support Centers	p. 67
Commodity Control Points	p. 68
Combat Support Center	p. 68
Training	p. 69
Information Systems	p. 69
Enterprise-Wide Systems and Combat Support Command and Control	p. 72
Closed-Loop Planning and Control Systems	p. 73
CSC2 Concepts Are Being Evaluated in Exercises	p. 74
Future Work to Implement TO-BE CSC2 Operational Architecture	p. 75
Future Work and Challenges	p. 77
Dynamic Feedback-The Foundation for S&RCS	p. 78
Planning	p. 79
Directing	p. 81
Coordinating	p. 83
Controlling	p. 84
Information Systems and Decision Support Tools	p. 85
New Sense and Respond Systems	p. 86
Agents and Related Technology	p. 87
Toward a Responsive System	p. 89
Bibliography	p. 93
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