D-side: A facility and workforce planning group multi-criteria decision support system for Johnson Space Center

Abstract

Abstract"To understand and protect our home planet, to explore the universe and search for life, and to inspire the next generation of explorers" is NASA's mission. The Systems Management Office at Johnson Space Center (JSC) is searching for methods to effectively manage the Center's resources to meet NASA's mission. D-Side is a group multi-criteria decision support system (GMDSS) developed to support facility decisions at JSC. D-Side uses a series of sequential and structured processes to plot facilities in a three-dimensional (3-D) graph on the basis of each facility's alignment with NASA's mission and goals, the extent to which other facilities are dependent on the facility, and the dollar value of capital investments that have been postponed at the facility relative to the facility's replacement value. A similarity factor rank orders facilities based on their Euclidean distance from Ideal and Nadir points. These similarity factors are then used to allocate capital improvement resources across facilities. We also present a parallel model that can be used to support decisions concerning allocation of human resources investments across workforce units. Finally, we present results from a pilot study where 12 experienced facility managers from NASA used D-Side and the organization's current approach to rank order and allocate funds for capital improvement across 20 facilities. Users evaluated D-Side favorably in terms of ease of use, the quality of the decision-making process, decision quality, and overall value-added. Their evaluations of D-Side were significantly more favorable than their evaluations of the current approach.

A review of applications of Analytic Hierarchy Process in operations management

“…Strategic importance of customer (profitability, relationship and volume). Tavanaa et al (2007) To guide funding decisions for Johnson space centre for its facilities and workforce.…”

Decision Support System and Multi‐Criteria Decision Aid: A State of the Art and Perspectives

“…In their paper, Tavana et al . () used the following three criteria: (i) facility priority index, (ii) facility dependency index, and (iii) facility condition index. These dimensions were suggested by experts at NASA.…”

“…The System Management Office at Johnson Space Center has developed the D-Side as an MCDSS to support and to effectively manage the Center's resources to meet NASA's mission. In their paper, Tavana et al (2007) used the following three criteria: (i) facility priority index, (ii) facility dependency index, and (iii) facility condition index. These dimensions were suggested by experts at NASA.…”

Approaches to Multi-Stage Multi-Attribute Group Decision Making

“…Xu and Chen 14 proposed an interactive method for MADGM under fuzzy environment where the information about attribute weights is partly known, the weights of decision makers are expressed in exact numerical values or triangular fuzzy numbers, and the attribute values are triangular fuzzy numbers. Tavana et al 15 developed a multiattribute group decision support system to support facility decisions at Johnson Space Center. Kuo et al 16 presented a multi-attribute analysis method based on the incorporated efficient fuzzy model and the concepts of positive ideal and negative ideal points to solve MAGDM problems, where assessment values are allowed to use fuzzy sets to evaluate the performance of alternatives and the importance of attributes.…”