Optimizing the capacity and operation of U.S. Army ammunition production facilities

Abstract

As the executive agent for ammunition, the Army manages the arsenals and plants that produce conventional ammunition for the Department of Defense. This industrial base must be able to manufacture a wide range of ammunition and ordnance items. In peacetime, the Army tests new rounds, makes training rounds, and manufactures rounds or components for war reserves, stockpile maintenance and upgrades. The Army must also manage and maintain capacity to replenish ammunition consumed by major theater wars without expanding the industrial base. The combined organic and inorganic industrial base can meet current requirements, but parts are becoming obsolete, and are expensive to operate. To improve efficiency and reduce per-unit costs while maintaining strategic control of this key defense capability, the Army is seeking to reconfigure facilities, and stabilize production rates. The Army realizes that the industrial base structure has to change. This thesis provides a prototypic decision support model that captures the essence of their problem by optimizing transition actions while satisfying complicated long-term constraints on resources, management, and capacity. The model suggests yearly decisions for a planning horizon of a decade or more, and is demonstrated with 16 organic installations, structures located therein, and process centers housed in those.