Seminar

Report:

DSS

for Military
Housing
Managers

SUBMITTED BY :
ZEESHAN ANWAR
DEBNARAYAN DEBNATH
MD IBRAHIM
MD SAZZAD HOSSAIN

Intoduction:

Decision Support System , DSS, is a model based set of

procedures for processing data and judgment to assist a
manager in his decision making.
In our case study on Decision Support For Military
Housing Managers , we found that there are several types
of requirements made by the US department , and the
manager has to fulfill all the requested requirements. The
manager tried to take his decisions on those
requirements by using SHMA (i.e. Segmented Housing
Market Analysis), but was unable to satisfy themselves ,
because of several types of problems that arises while
making decisions. So , to overcome these problems , the
Military Housing Manager accepted and adopted the DSS.

Requirements and their problems:

Req. 1:- The US department army entered into an

agreement for long term leasing or for building
appropriate housing facilities close to or on a military
bases.
Prob:- Decision on where , what , when , and how to build
or lease is a complex problem.
Req. 2:- The rental units must be affordable by the
military to use along with nicer accommodations.
Prob:- The problem here is that ,there are 20 military
ranks and the higher you rank , the nicer accommodation
you get and that also should be affordable.
Req. 3:- Houses should be available in six sizes, ranging
from a studio to a five bedroom unit.
Prob:- Here the family size is a big determining factor.

Why was this DSS needed?

DSS, its a model based set of procedures for processing

data and judgment to assist a manager in his decision
making. Its is flexible and any one can use to add,
delete , combine , change or rearrange basic elements as
we do in DBMS (i.e. Database Management System).
The DSS, was very much needed by the Military Housing
Manager in order to make a quality high decision, cost
reduction , time saving, and user/customer satisfaction.
Though the Military Housing Manager thought of requiring
SHMA, but it costs was very high and its only purpose was
to justify the decision and nothing else. Since the SHMA
installation was very lengthy and even subject to
errors ,when done manually , so to overcome these
problems and take a high quality decisions, the Military
Housing Manager decided to adapt DSS, which also
supports SHMA, therefore no need for external analysis
and thus cost is also reduced and satisfiable result is
gained.

Discuss the role Sensitivity Analysis may play

in this DSS

Sensitivity Analysis attempts to assess the impact of a

change in the input data or parameters on the proposed
solutions. In this model, the DSS performs all the
calculations requested by the housing manager. It
provides the manager to input his or her data. To increase
the processing in this model, the DSS gives two
feedbacks. The first one is from managers actions to the
database and the model. The second one goes from the
outputs to the decision maker . This feedback includes
Sensitivity analysis, that provides What-If analysis and
Goal-seeking capabilities.
What-If analysis makes hypothetical changes to the
problem and observes impact on the results. Such as
housing, consumer price index, median rent, annual
utility bill, and military allowances may be changed.
Goal-seeking analysis determines the problem data
required for a given result. The user can review and
modify values as needed.

What factors, in your opinion, contribute to the

success of the DSS?
As per my opinion, the following factors are contributed
to the success of the DSS:
User Friendliness:
DSS can be used by an individual or by a group.
The user receives the DSS on a disk including all the
documentation.
DSS is flexible, and so users can add, delete,
combine, change, or rearrange basic elements.
Users fell the environment as a home environment
while he/she working with DSS.

Effectiveness:
DSS attempt to improve the effectiveness of decision
making rather than its efficiency. That is, improving
the accuracy, time liner, quality rather than the cost
of making decision.
It has a strong graphical capabilities and an english
like interactive human-machine interface which has
greatly increases the effectiveness of DSS.

Profitability:
DSS have saved a lot of money per year as a
result of reduced training requirements.
The error that occurred manually have been
eliminated by the existence of DSS.
DSS have reduced the human power and
complexity.
DSS have profited not only small scale
organizations but also to large scale
organizations by its factors of effectiveness,
user friendliness etc.

Discuss how the system might evolve to

handle additional related decision making
The system organizes the database, structures the
model and performs the analysis. It eliminates all
the inaccurate, incomplete and redundant data
that are computed manually. The system processed
the decision making that are considerably
improved by quicker analysis of the housing
market, impact analysis, error-free computation
and rapid sensitivity analyses. In addition, the
auditing process has been standardized, and it is
done faster, resulting in an earlier release of funds
and the alleviation of housing storages in many
locations. The most important thing is that, The
system give more savings and it reduced the
training requirements.

DISCUSS THE ROLE OF FORECASTING IN THIS DSS

Forecasting Means:
The term forecasting means to tell about something
before it happens. It is generated when the results
are evaluated.
Role of forecasting in this DSS:
Forecasting deals with demand over supply which
means that properties of supply over demand should
neither be more or less. Because if supply is more
than demand then , it is unnecessary wastage of cost
and even if vice versa occurs , then it can affect the
prestige of military.
Corrective result using forecasting:
Sometime forecasting may not give us the proper
result. But as using DSS we can review and modify
values as needed , hence forecast results corrective
actions are being taken which at last results in
accuracy of DSS.

CONCLUSION:
A DSS is designed to support complex managerial
problems that other computerized techniques
cannot. The major components of DSS area
database and its management, a model base and
its management, and a user-friendly interface. An
intelligent component can also be included. It is a
continuous process and managers learn from
reality. Thus corrective actions can take place. From
our case study we see that, DSS can improve the
effectiveness of decision-making, decrease the
need for training, improve management control,
facilitate communication, save effort by the user,
reduce costs, and allow for more objective decision
making. All these are done in a User-friendly
environment.