4 Ways better use of data will reduce waste in the production of Warfighters:
It’s no secret Western nations are under-producing warfighting talent. We are overmatched in pure numbers by peer adversaries, and we are not meeting recruitment targets. The RAF are several hundred pilots short with complicated problems in the flying training system. The British Army and Royal Navy have a 5% shortfall in numbers and the US DoD is in double figure shortfall across their services.
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to improve efficiency in a production line is to look at waste. Here are five ways technology can help reduce waste in training systems.
1. Over-teaching
I’ve got a coffee at my desk while I write this. The boiled water I used to make it was never going to be more boiled no matter how much I held the power button down. Boiled is boiled. Competent is competent. In medicine the equivalent concept is that of the minimum effective dose (MED). What is the exact right amount of anything to do the job? Any more than the MED is waste.
Merging student and training system data can create more personalised learning journeys for students while ultimately reaching the same competency, meaning each student gets exactly the right dose of training for them.
2. Waiting
Inefficient scheduling, overly rigid syllabuses, logistical and maintenance challenges all contribute to training system delays. When plans inevitably detonate, we should be able to move to the next most optimum schedule, rather than ‘best effort’ from a person susceptible to biases and sugar lows.
Machine Learning deployed in scheduling scenarios can adjust to the realities of ‘getting things done’ in a complex environment. As long as feedback loops are created, informing the models of what actually happened, they will learn to produce better and better resource schedules. Additionally, secure cloud-based training technologies accessible from any device, anywhere, allow students to learn at the time and place of their choosing, allowing them to “fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds’ worth of distance run”.
3. Transportation
The advances in distributed synthetic training have significantly reduced the need to travel. Systems like Gladiator at RAF Waddington and VTTC at Nellis AFB allow Call Of Duty style dial-a-fight training and bring transportation waste lower than ever before. Virtual Reality (VR) can reduce transportation too, with the training environment brought to the student rather than vice versa.
These technologies significantly increase the ability to use data analytics to monitor and adjust the performance of students, instructors and the training system itself.
4. Inventory
Excess inventory in the military training environment can include unused equipment, materials, or even outdated training curricula that clutter the training pipeline. Regular reviews and updates of training materials and methods can ensure that only useful, up-to-date resources are at hand, reducing costs and storage needs while increasing training relevance and effectiveness.
Large Language Models are really helpful here and can prevent duplication in materials, identify gaps in content and ripple changes seamlessly into an organisation’s technical and learning publications, especially when integrated into a product like Aquila Learning ALaRMS.
In the last few decades, training systems have upgraded from paper based design, delivery and management process to digital ones. With the advent of AI and ML, we can take that improvement one step further by adding intelligent solutions that optimise the efficiency and efficacy of modern warfighter training.
Come and find us if your organisation has any of these pain points, and we can show you our solutions to them: hello@missiondecisions.com
