An Investigation into the Application of Formal Decision Making Techniques to Design Alterations and Additions (As&As) for Vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA)
type: CreativeWork
description: The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a flotilla of ships, owned by the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MoD), which serves to resupply naval vessels during worldwide operations. Design Alterations and Additions (As&As) are implemented throughout their service lives in order to ‘Upgrade’ and ‘Update’ their capability. This research offers an original contribution to knowledge by applying formal decision making techniques to A&A reasoning in a way that, to the best knowledge of the researcher, has not previously been implemented as an integral part of the in-service design control process for RFA ships. In delivering this contribution, Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) techniques are investigated and applied. Three MADM techniques are applied: SAW (Simple Additive Weighting), AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Processes) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). Application of these techniques defines the scope boundary and so rules out exhaustive investigation into the wider decision making approaches that could form the focus of future research. Literature reviews indicate that formal decision techniques have been extensively studied and applied – seemingly to the point of saturation. For this reason, the research does not claim to have developed new techniques. Rather, the contribution to knowledge lies in the systematic application of the techniques. In this respect, a niche topic is identified involving the implementation of As&As during Fleet Time (FT). Investigation results in the systematic identification and categorisation of the Risk Factors (RFs) constraining FT implementation. Two different techniques (SAW and AHP) are applied to FT As&As. The outcomes demonstrate a consistent trend and so offer mutual assurance. In addition, comparison of the techniques indicates that, whilst SAW offers a convenient and intuitive approach, the AHP imposes a higher cognitive burden. This is regarded as significant by the researcher sin…
abstract: The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a flotilla of ships, owned by the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MoD), which serves to resupply naval vessels during worldwide operations. Design Alterations and Additions (As&As) are implemented throughout their service lives in order to ‘Upgrade’ and ‘Update’ their capability. This research offers an original contribution to knowledge by applying formal decision making techniques to A&A reasoning in a way that, to the best knowledge of the researcher, has not previously been implemented as an integral part of the in-service design control process for RFA ships. In delivering this contribution, Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) techniques are investigated and applied. Three MADM techniques are applied: SAW (Simple Additive Weighting), AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Processes) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). Application of these techniques defines the scope boundary and so rules out exhaustive investigation into the wider decision making approaches that could form the focus of future research. Literature reviews indicate that formal decision techniques have been extensively studied and applied – seemingly to the point of saturation. For this reason, the research does not claim to have developed new techniques. Rather, the contribution to knowledge lies in the systematic application of the techniques. In this respect, a niche topic is identified involving the implementation of As&As during Fleet Time (FT). Investigation results in the systematic identification and categorisation of the Risk Factors (RFs) constraining FT implementation. Two different techniques (SAW and AHP) are applied to FT As&As. The outcomes demonstrate a consistent trend and so offer mutual assurance. In addition, comparison of the techniques indicates that, whilst SAW offers a convenient and intuitive approach, the AHP imposes a higher cognitive burden. This is regarded as significant by the researcher sin…
author: Franks, DA
keywords: TC Hydraulic engineering. Ocean engineering, TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery, VM Naval architecture. Shipbuilding. Marine engineering
date published: 2018-04
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:30:22Z
provider: Liverpool Jon Moores University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Liverpool John Moores University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.24377/LJMU.t.00008749