Project Details

[Return to Previous Page]

Breaking the Bottleneck: Capacity, Automation & Expansion Strategy for JGM Steel

Company: JGM, Steel Fabricators and Constructors, LLC

Major(s):
Primary: IE
Secondary: ME

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

JGM is a structural steel fabrication and erection company based in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where roughly 60 shop employees fabricate, weld, and process structural steel for construction projects nationwide. The Coatesville plant currently runs five 10-hour shifts plus a Saturday shift and produces about 120,000 earned labor hours a year, and JGM wants to meaningfully grow output without proportionally growing its direct workforce. This capstone team will study the plant's current production process, from receiving raw steel through fabrication, welding, and shipping, to identify the biggest bottlenecks limiting throughput, and will evaluate opportunities to increase capacity through better process flow, material handling, and automated steel-processing equipment. By the end of the project, the team should deliver a documented current-state process and capacity assessment, a prioritized list of bottlenecks and improvement opportunities, and a future-state capacity model or set of recommendations showing how JGM could increase output. The findings will directly inform JGM's investment decisions and long-term growth plans for the Coatesville facility, and the team will present its results to JGM's executive leadership at the end of the semester.