Multivariate analysis of the effect of source and supply and carrier on processing and shipping times for issue priority group one requisitions

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the effects of source of supply and carrier on the delivery times of high-priority requisitions to primary destinations of Navy, Military Sealift Command, USMC ground forces, and select U.S. Coast Guard units operating in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Fleet Areas of Operation (AORs), and major Fleet concentration areas within the United States. The primary focus is on determining whether source of supply, carrier, and the interaction of these two factors have an effect on processing and shipping times of high-priority requisitions. "Source of supply" refers to a Department of Defense distribution depot and "carrier" refers to a shipper, such as Federal Express®, DHL Worldwide Express®, United Parcel Service, Inc.®, Air Mobility Command and commercial freight forwarders. This study uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) linear models, Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) and nonparametric methods to explore the structure of the historical requisition datasets. OLS linear models were found to be inadequate, but both the GLMs and nonparametric tests proved to be valid and yielded results from which inferences could be made. The GLM and nonparametric test results indicate that source of supply has a statistically significant effect on processing times of high-priority requisitions, and that source of supply and carrier each have a statistically significant effect on shipping times to certain destination areas. The GLMs also indicate that there is no significant interaction between source of supply and carrier.