Multivariate analysis of the effect of source of supply and carrier on shipping times for issue priority group one (IPG-1) requisitions

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to examine the effects of source of supply and carrier on shipping times of high-priority requisitions to primary destinations of Navy units in the Pacific Theater and Persian Gulf. Our focus was primarily on determining whether source of supply, carrier, and the interaction of these two factors, have an effect on shipping times of highpriority requisitions. "Source of supply" refers to Department of Defense supply depots and "carrier" refers to shippers, such as Federal Expressʼ and DHL Worldwide Expressʼ. This study uses ordinary least square (OLS) linear models, generalized linear models (GLM's) and nonparametric methods to explore the structure of the historical requisition datasets. OLS linear models were found to be inadequate, but both the GLM's and nonparametric tests proved to be valid and yielded results from which inferences could be made. According to the GLM's and nonparametric tests, source of supply has a statistically significant effect on shipping times of high-priority requisitions, but carrier does not. The GLM's also indicated that there is no significant interaction between source of supply and carrier.