The trade-off between DES and SD in modelling military manpower

Operations research techniques have been used widely in simulating the dynamics of workforce systems. Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and System Dynamics (SD) are among the techniques that have been increasingly used in modelling military workforces. In the last five years, DES has seen more interest in modelling both career management and the training pipeline. Two significant reasons for this are discussed in this paper. This article presents some notes in comparing the two techniques in modelling military workforce. The study found that DES is an appealing method in workforce modelling, especially with a small size population, as it more easily accommodates new personnel attributes and prevents the fractionalisation of personnel through the system.