A Systems Approach to the Determination of Control Strategy in a Hierarchical Manpower System

This article addresses the development and application of a simulation model of human resources transitions in the Slovenian armed forces. The system is modeled as an exponential delay chain by means of the Systems Dynamics methodology. The control strategy is determined according to the prescribed final states of a particular rank. In order to achieve the final states, the promotions policy between ranks and fluctuations could be changed by considering the boundaries of model parameters. The trajectory function is defined, which determines the approach to the final state. Numerical optimization was applied in order to provide a proper control strategy. The results show that some scenarios are not acceptable due to the problem of reachability. The developed system incorporates an advanced user interface that enables the efficient application of the developed methodology.