Support Leader's Digital Assistant

摘要

Currently, there is no standard tool designed to assist Army maneuver battalions in daily forecasting of food, water, petroleum products, and ammunition. Support platoon leaders and battalion logistics officers forecast logistical requirements primarily by hand or with tools developed 'in-house'. Because these personnel do not get the training needed to do accurate forecasting, they typically seek the assistance of Forward Support Battalion (FSB) company commanders through informal channels. The goal is to achieve the most accurate supply forecast possible, but under the current System, over- forecasting or under-forecasting is common, which can result in unnecessary risk to the mission, units, or support personnel, as well as increasing Stress on the logistics chain. Currently, the only automated tools available are designed for brigade level end above. The Support Leader's Digital Assistant (SLDA) began as an Excel spreadsheet designed to forecast re-supply needs based on existing planning figures, and was subsequently developed for the Palm platform as a test of concept. The goal of this phase of development was to expand its forecasting capabilities, adjust the model's parameters to interface with existing, higher echelon automated Systems, and to facilitate its development for the Pocket PC platform.