(Thomas Taylor, 1993)
Lead Enterprises, Inc., in business since 1959, is a 21-employee operation based out of Miami, FL with annual sales of approximately $500,000. The company has slowly grown and adapted to become the largest distributor of lead products in Southern Florida--from sinkers and diving belt weights to pig lead, X-ray shielding, custom products, and more. Despite the company's success, the production plant has been run the same way for many years, with little change or innovation. With the underlying goals of minimizing costs and optimizing quality, this project endeavored to analyze the company, produce a model of the process flow through the factory, make recommendations on how to optimize the process, and evaluate whether new equipment should be purchased.
To fulfill these requirements, a detailed model of the production process was created to chart the amount of labor
required, and cost associated within each process, then link these individual processes together to form a working
model of the entire company. Since this was the first model ever attempted at Lead Enterprises, Inc. extensive
background research was required. The model, finally produced, depicts the need for new machinery, specifically, a
new injection molding machine. Using statistical analysis, several other recommendations of ways to improve the
existing processes, with only minor changes, are made.