- Author
-
Nilsson, E. K.
|
Swartz, J. A.
|
Westfall, M.
- Title
- Application of Systems Analysis to the Operation of a Fire Department. Final Report.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NBS TN 782
June 1974
52 p.
- Distribution
- Available from Government Printing Office Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
fire departments
|
operations research
|
simulation
|
systems analysis
- Abstract
- Rising labor costs and increasing competition for tax dollars to provide urban services demand that a more precise methodology be used in the management of fire departments. A pilot program was conducted with the cooperation of the Alexandria, Virginia Fire Department to evaluate the applicability and usefulness of selected Operations Research tools. These tools, in the form of computer models, were modified and adapted to assure that they could be implemented to provide information which would facilitate fire department management. In this effort queueing, facility location, and simulation models were applied to sample data extracted from the historical records of the Alexandria Fire Department. It was established that such models do provide valuable information which may assist managerial decisions. This paper describes the city of Alexandria and its fire department, the O.R. models, output from their application, and evaluations of the output.