Question

Background: You are the principal engineer for a new automotive company, Hahiran Luxury. Hahiran Luxury plans to specialize in extreme luxury electric vehicles. No one thought it was possible to have this combination of horsepower and battery life, but your team made it happen. Now you just must produce enough to meet demand. You require the interior of the vehicle to match the level of luxury using hand crafted leather. This level of luxury comes at a cost! Your company plans to sell the first iteration of this car for $1.2 MM (million).

You have identified some key details of taking this dream car from prototype to market. They are as follows:
To make this vehicle, you require several components: frame/suspension, body, engine/battery/electrical, interior (think seats, flooring, dash), and accessories (think everything from tires to bedazzled interior control buttons and paint). Hint: there is a reason they were broken into these categories.
The engine/battery is the most complex component. It has parts sourced from all over the globe which take, on average, one week to source. Once the parts arrive, it takes 24 hours of continuous labor to put together. Once completed, the electrical wiring into the car takes another 24 hours of continuous labor.
The frame/suspension raw material is sourced locally and available on demand. It is entirely autonomously designed and takes 3 hours for the robot to weld and assemble.
The interior has leather sourced from Italy (which takes 2-5 days to source, unless overnighted for $10,000 a freight with enough leather for two vehicles). A team of highly specialized leather crafters (4 available total) work only 4 hours a day and it takes about 16 hours of labor to design and install the interior.
You have all potential specialty accessories pre-ordered and available in your facility. Orders require 1 hour of labor for each added accessory. All vehicles must be painted and have custom tires put on.

Questions:

What is the lead time for a vehicle, assuming sourcing begins as soon as an order is placed?

Answer 1

The lead time for a vehicle from Hahiran Luxury is approximately 1 week and 2 days, based on the sourcing and assembly times of the engine/battery/electrical components and the handcrafted leather interior, without considering potential process overlaps or expedited sourcing for the leather.

Step-by-step explanation:

The lead time for a vehicle by Hahiran Luxury, assuming sourcing for components begins immediately after an order is placed, can be calculated by summing up the longest lead times required for each separate piece of the production process.

Starting with the engine/battery/electrical, this component is the most complex and requires the longest time frame to source and assemble, taking an average of 1 week for sourcing and an additional 48 hours for assembly and electrical integration. Next, the leather interior takes 2-5 days to source (or 1 day if overnighted at an extra cost), plus 16 hours of labor spread across 4 days because the specialized crafters work only 4 hours per day. Since the frame/suspension is locally sourced and available on demand, it takes 3 hours for assembly, which does not add to the overall lead time. Accessories require 1 hour of labor each to add to the vehicles, but this is highly variable and dependent on the number of accessories ordered, so it will not be added explicitly to the total lead time. Finally, all vehicles must be painted and have custom tires put on, which is not specified but assumed to take less than a day given the efficiency of the existing processes.

Therefore, if there is no overlap in the processes and assuming that the leather is not overnighted, the longest lead time would be from the engine/battery/electrical sourcing and assembly, coming to a total of approximately 1 week and 2 days. If the leather is overnighted, the total lead time would be reduced. It is important to note that simultaneous processes and efficient scheduling could potentially reduce this lead time. Accessory installation time is variable and not included in this calculation.