A Network Flow Approach to the Initial Skills Training Scheduling Problem

The United States Air Force commissions new officers as they complete their undergraduate degree or their officer commissioning training. These officers are commissioned frequently throughout the calendar year, sometimes in large groups. In order to perform their job to the best of their abilities, they require proper training. With this in mind, it seems only natural that there exists a mathematical, repeatable and measurable method for scheduling these officers into their training courses to have them fully trained and available for Air Force duties in the timeliest manner. This thesis demonstrates that the goal of efficiently and effectively scheduling officers into their training courses is not being met, and it provides a method which can be utilized by the Air Force to ensure that the goal is actually achieved. The formulation is based upon a minimum cost network flow problem used to perform the scheduling. The algorithm solves the problem in a polynomial amount of time (in terms of the problem size) and gives the user measurable and comparable results. Further, numerous problem instances are presented in order to explore different decision alternatives which will enable the Air Force senior leadership to make informed decisions.