USMC DEPOT-LEVEL MAINTENANCE OF THE LIGHT ARMORED VEHICLE (LAV): A DISCRETE-EVENT SIMULATION ANALYSIS

Abstract

The USMC maintenance depots at Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) Albany, GA, and MCLB Barstow, CA, conduct extensive contracted overhauls and repairs on a variety of ground combat and combat service support vehicles from throughout the operating forces. Servicing of one vehicle in particular, the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV), has had issues with runaway costs and prolonged maintenance cycle-time caused by severe bottlenecks at key junctures in the maintenance cycle. This study models the bottlenecks experienced in the real system and then provides recommendations to mitigate them. The discrete-event simulation (DES) tools used in this study implement data farming and data analysis that provide quantitative justification and show the sponsor where to adjust resource capacity parameters in the system in order to reduce the effect of these bottlenecks and reduce overall cycle time. In addition to the DES analysis, this project provides the sponsor, Marine Corps Logistics Command, with a working tool that can be used in assisting key leadership in making resource capacity decisions by showing how individual queues and the overall system are affected when input parameters are adjusted.