Pergamon Int. Trans. Opl Res. Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 185-197, 1997 © 1997 IFORS. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain PII: S0969--6016(97)00005-1 0969-6016/97 $17.00 + 0.00 Exploiting Airline Reservation Technologies to Improve Navy Training Management* YANWEN WANG, 1 JOHN FOLCHI, 2 THOMAS A. BLANCO, 2 SUKRITI LATH, 1 ROBERT J. WHITE l and LEO BURNS 1 tSABRE Decision Technologies, USA and 2Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, USA The Navy trains hundreds of thousands of students every year. For Navy training, yield management means offering the right school seats to the right customers (e.g. active duty, reservists, foreign nationals) at the right time to maximize fleet readiness. The yield management methods will permit the Navy to make the best use of its limited training resources. This paper discusses the yield management technologies that will be tightly integrated into the Navy's new on-line training seat reservation system. © 1997 IFORS. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. 1. INTRODUCTION The US Navy trains approx. 350,000 personnel every year. Navy personnel undergo training at various stages during their careers and may attend a number of different schools. Completion of a prescribed course/curriculum requirement typically qualifies a sailor for a skill award that certifies his or her ability to perform specific jobs in the fleet. In addition, the Navy provides training to a number of different student groups. To manage the training process, the Navy allocates (seats) to different student groups in each class. The Navy recognizes over 50 student types, including USN Active, USN Reserve, Army, Air Force, Marines, US government civilians, and foreign nationals. The Navy can improve class utilization and maximize attainment of its overall training objectives with a quota management system that assists quota managers in efficiently allocating quotas among the different student groups. This paper describes the program models in the Navy Training Quota Management System (NTQMS), currently being developed at SABRE Decision Technologies under the auspices of the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center (NPRDC). I.I. Current quota management process The Navy training quota management process involves a series of activities intended to determine the appropriate allocation of classroom seats to the various types of students. The process begins with annual training requirements planning which determines the training requirements for the next 5 years. The next step is to conduct a feasibility study to ensure that sufficient classroom, equipment, and instructor resources are available to provide the required training each year. If sufficient resources are not available, the Training Program Coordinators (TCPs) suggest modifications to the annual requirements and iterate towards a feasible plan. After the annual feasible training plans are determined, class schedules are developed to execute the plans. The next step is to allocate quotas (seats) for each class convening to satisfy the training plans. These quotas are then input into the primary Navy training database, the Navy Integrated Training and Resource Administration System (NITRAS II.) The Navy uses two basic methods for allocating or "spreading" quotas. The primary method involves an equitable share rule to allocate the quotas for different types of students. Using this rule, the total quota allotment by student group for a given course is divided equally among all the class convenings of that course and the quotas are automatically spread when entered into NITRAS II. The second method involves manually entering quotas in NITRAS II for each class convening of a *The viewpoints and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, are not official, and do not necessarily reflect views of the Department of Navy. Correspondence: Yahweh Wang, SABRE Decision Tec]molo~.fie.~, MD4302, P.O. Box 619615, DFW Airport, TX 75261, USA l~fi