Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

The Air Force is pursuing several efficiency initiatives designed to reduce support function costs. One such initiative is an effort to reduce the flow days of items being repaired in the Air Force’s organic depots. Many end items are affected by awaiting parts (AWP) delays, which increase total flow days. The first step in reducing AWP delays is to identify which piece parts are causing the delays. A gap analysis was conducted to identify a process for creating a list of piece parts that are causing AWP delays. In addition, a clinimetric method was used to develop an aggregate measure of AWP impact by which the list of piece parts could be prioritized. The gap analysis showed that such a list can be created with Cognos, a reporting tool currently used by the depots, which can pull data from multiple information systems. In addition, only minor changes to information recorded throughout the repair process are needed. An aggregate measure of AWP impact was also created and tested. It produced significantly different prioritizations from the individual constituent variables, and provides a possible method for helping depot managers to understand decision tradeoffs between different parts shortage priorities.