This thesis addresses the question of whether Roman military garrisons on the frontiers of the Empire could sustain their annual supplies of grain from the local countryside; and if they could, to what extent. The paper examines first the general diet of a Roman soldier and the administrative and logistical system by which the military was supplied with its required foodstuffs. Three case studies of specific forts: Hauarra in present-day Jordan, Vindolanda in present-day Britain, and Vindonissa in present-day Switzerland, based on the surviving granary structures of the forts and on the theoretical grain yields of the area, show that it was possible for these forts to supply themselves with their annual requirements of grain from the local area, without recourse to costly importation. / Graduate

Inventory management under uncertainty is a widely researched field and many different types of inventory models have been used to address inventory problems in practice [1, 10, 11, 26, 50, 35]. However, there is a lack of published studies focusing on inventory planning in environments, such as the military, that are characterised by uncertainty as a result of extreme events. A critical area in military decision support is inventory management. Planning for stock levels in particular can be a daunting task, due to the uncertainty associated with the future. The military is typically an environment where improbable events can have massive impacts on operations; and the availability of the correct amount of stock can enhance the responsiveness, efficiency, and preparedness of the military, and ultimately save human lives. On the other hand, excessive stock - especially ammunition - can result in huge monetary losses through damages, stock degradation, and stock obsolescence. Excessive ammunition also poses a risk to public safety, and can ultimately challenge a country's ability to control the use of force. It is therefore very important to provide proper attention to determining the required stock levels during military inventory management. This dissertation aims, therefore, to develop a reliable decision support tool that can assist with inventory management in the military. To achieve this, a mixed multi-objective mathematical model is used that attempts to minimise cost, shortages, and stock while incorporating demand uncertainty by means of probability distributions and fuzzy numbers. The model considers three different scenarios, and determines the minimum required stock level and the best order quantity for three different stock categories, for a single ammunition item. The model is converted into its crisp, non-fuzzy, and deterministic counterpart first by transforming the fuzzy constraints into their crisp versions and then deriving the deterministic model of the crisp recourse stochastic model. The corresponding crisp, deterministic model is then solved using exact branch-and-bound embedded in the LINGO 10.0 optimisation software package and the reliability of the solutions in different scenarios is tested by means of discrete event simulation. The reliability of the model is then compared with the reliabilities of the well known (r;Q) and (s; S) inventory models in the literature. The comparison indicates that the mixed model proposed in this dissertation is more reliable in extreme scenarios than the (r;Q) and (s; S) inventory models in the literature. A sensitivity analysis is then performed and results indicate that the model yields reliable solutions with a reliability that varies between 74.54% and 100%, depending on the scenario investigated. The lower reliability is during the high demand scenario, this is caused by the ability of the inventory model to prioritise different scenarios based on their estimated possibility to ensure that stock levels are not unneccessary escalated for highly improbable events. It can be concluded that the proposed mixed multi-objective mathematical model that aims to minimise inventory cost, surplus stock, and shortages is a reliable inventory decision support model for the uncertain military environment. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / unrestricted

The Finnish War 1808-1809 started in February 1808 by a Russian attack on Finland and ended by the peace treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809. The peace meant the dissolution of the six-hundred-year old Swedish-Finnish realm. The Finnish War 1808-09 was fought in the poor and isolated areas of the north of Sweden and Finland. This thesis deals with the preconditions for the supply of an army and warfare in the northern parts of Finland and Sweden in the period 1808 – 1809. The problems of the supply service and the role of local civilian society within the military supply system are the focus of attention. The thesis aims at posing new questions as well as supplying a new perspective on the nature of warfare at this period of time. A modified picture of the Finnish War of 1808-1809 will also be presented. Three areas of problems are addressed: 1) The resources in the war zone, war plans and supply organization; 2) Logistical problems; 3) The role of civilian society as a resource within the military supply system. Both the Swedish Army and the Russian Army are examined. Geographically the scope of the thesis is restricted to three counties in northern Sweden and Finland, namely Västerbotten in Sweden, Oulu and Vaasa in Finland. The most significant findings of this thesis are that the preconditions for supply during the Finnish War 1808-1809 are to a large extent equal to the ability and the will of the local population to offer provisions and render services. It can also be shown that supply was instrumental in the warfare during certain critical periods, especially in the summer of 1808. The difference between the Russian and the Swedish supply systems is to a large extent indicative of the outcome of the war. The Russian decentralized supply system proved more flexible than the Swedish did, despite an apparently superior organization of the latter. Additionally, it is an important realization that supply as a key factor in warfare is not made up of just delivery of food stuff and forage but also comprises vital functions like grinding of flour and baking of bread. From a European perspective the issue of supply proves to be a difficult one in Finland as well as in other peripheral states, e.g. Spain. When the local resources are sparse a supply system based on storage is required on the one hand and systematic co-operation with the local population on the other. Keywords: The Finnish War 1808-09, logistics, war and society, war, supplies, military supply system, artels, farmers, civilian administration, burghers, Sweden and the Napoleonic Wars. / digitalisering@umu

Swedish military logistics are in large part dependent on civilian business assets in the acquisition of certain materiel. Here are products with high commercial-turnover-rate, which for a military organization who want to be able to buy the same product years later makes it difficult. The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and their consultant partners frequently run into this problem in their support functions, specifically the integrated logistics support (ILS) process. By request of the FMV consultant partner Svekon, the main purpose of the study is to investigate the subject of Swedish logistics and general ILS processes. This with the goal of determining how suitable ILS-processes can be designed for materiel systems with high-turnover-rates. The study is divided into investigations of the ILS subject, the current process within FMV and its partners, and factors around Swedish defence-logistics that play a part in the process. Methods include interviewing personnel who work within two exemplified materiel areas, including FMV, Svekon, civilian contractors, and the users within the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF). Second is a literature study based on prior works and theories around ILS and Swedish logistics conduct, including models, guidelines, and factors that contribute to an efficient ILS-process. With the gathered material from both methods the major contributing factors and models are discussed and put into highlighting an ILS-framework to follow. The conclusion through a broader understanding of military logistics suggests that the term “logistics” and suitability of “efficiency” are in large part up to interpretation by the different actors, due to different underlying processes and goals. As such, the final contribution is a set of universal success factors that with the example of an applied ILS-framework for Svekon can be used by any ILS actor to construct a process according to their background. / Svensk militärlogistik är till stor del beroende av civila affärstillgångar vid anskaffning av viss materiel. Här finns produkter med hög kommersiell omsättningshastighet, vilket för en militär organisation som vill kunna köpa samma produkter år senare gör det svårt. Försvarets materielverk (FMV) och deras konsultparter upplever detta som ett problem i sina stödfunktioner, så kallat integrerat logistikstöd (ILS). På begäran av FMV:s konsultpart Svekon är huvudsyftet med studien att undersöka ämnet kring svensk logistik och allmänna ILS-processer. Detta med målet att avgöra hur anpassade ILS-processer kan utformas för materielsystem med hög omsättningshastighet. Studien är indelad i utredningar av ILS-ämnet, den nuvarande processen inom FMV och dess partners samt faktorer kring svensk försvarslogistik som påverkar processen. Metoder inkluderar intervjuer på personal som arbetar inom två av dessa materielområden, bland annat FMV, Svekon, civila företag, och brukarna inom Försvarsmakten (FM). Andra metoden är en litteraturstudie baserad på tidigare arbeten och teorier kring ILS och svenskt logistikbeteende, inklusive modeller, riktlinjer och faktorer som bidrar till en effektiv ILS-process. Med det insamlade materialet från båda metoderna diskuteras bidragande faktorer och modeller som sedan kan användas i ett applicerbart ILS-ramverk. Slutsatsen genom en bredare förståelse av militär logistik antyder att begreppen "logistik" och anpassning av "effektivitet" till stor del är upp till tolkning av de olika aktörerna, på grund av individuella bakomliggande processer och mål. Genom detta blir det slutliga bidraget en uppsättning av universella framgångsfaktorer som appliceras i ett tillämpat exempel på ILS-ramverk, baserat på Svekon som användare. Med faktorerna och de presenterade modellerna kan sedan vilken ILS-aktör som helst i processen utforma ett eget ramverk baserat på sin egen bakgrund.