Abstract:
Lenco Armored Vehicles is the leading designer and manufacturer of armored police vehicles. Our goal was to discover how long the entire production of the BearCat Model should take Lenco to produce. Specifically, we are focusing on the Betnr Parts Fabrication department, as it has the highest variability within vehicle production. Lenco currently does not have the exact breakdown of how long each part takes in the Betnr Parts Fabrication department, as all of the welding and data collection is done by the fabricators. We also created methods to increase efficiency and decrease production time. With a more accurate production schedule, Lenco will be able to produce more BearCats per unit of time. High production costs caused by the variability in the length of production will also be reduced. Additionally, we suggested some organizational improvements in order to support the department managers and to help reduce lead time. Through our project we have aided Lenco in collecting data about the part breakdown from the fabricators. With the data we collected, we created an integer program in order to sequence the parts into the number of available stations, so we would be able to determine how long each batch of vehicles should take in the department. We also built an Arena model to demonstrate the newly proposed process. Additionally, the organizational improvements were formed with the aim to help decrease any lead time created by administrative work.