US Army Pine Bluff Arsenal | Ghille Suit Process Optimization

CJ Merkel, Jaela Harris, Lauren Boyd

Our Senior Design project was sponsored by Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA), a small U.S. Army installation located in Arkansas that works alongside the Department of Defense to provide products and services for military use. For this project we worked on process optimization for ghillie suits, a type of camouflaged uniform used by snipers for disguise.

We focused specifically on the head drape component of the suit, which is used to cover the back and upper body. Our goal is to present PBA with a design and process that can be incorporated into their current layout that will help reduce production time and labor costs.

Over the better part of a year, our group researched and discovered various ways to improve the current flow of the head drape composition. Ranging from reverse engineering to hands-on sewing, we determined the best way to refine the process was to create a simulation and focus on the details of current work instructions. Through this project, we learned the importance of detail and how that translates to impacts on production. This importance was evident in the amount of specifics needed to create our simulation program, Simio, to its entirety with data entry to get an attainable result along with specifics for the work instructions and standard operating procedures to assemble the head drape. We have utilized this program for process and machinery optimization. Recommendations on the process will then be made based upon statistical and comparative analyses on the experimental production runs.