green foundry development through casting simulation and qfd

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Vol 57 No. 8 August 2011

TECHNICAL PAPERTECHNICAL PAPERTECHNICAL PAPERTECHNICAL PAPERTECHNICAL PAPER

The context of providing right value to the customer begins with a holistic objectiveand a broad vision. The issue of broad vision appears as being devoid of the pointfocus, but it is a blessing in disguise especially when this asymptotic phenomenonresults because of inclusion of multi-customers (like the environment, energyresource, Government et al.) start operating with me-too profile.

The present work attempts to collate the issue of combining requirements ofsecondary founding objective like Green Foundry practising. The objective hereis to emphasise the paradigm of reduction of castings produced. Both weightreduction (of individual piece), and the successful deployment of ‘methods’ canbe addressed thus to assure greener founding. The instance of using castingsimulation packages has been recommended as the narrow objective, whichemerges through a broader focus of SHEQ-PC.

The present work builds the conceptual framework for the development of aminimum product weight at lean casting, or, lower metal cast at abating defects.The use of simulation software allows that objective, whose character may bedetermined by applying the Voice of customer paradigm through fulfilment ofQuality Function Deployment (QFD). The QFD tool and the roadmap of lean castingdevelopment would be handy in imparting to the foundryman a wherewithal forGreen and environment-friendly planning of Founding system.

KKKKKeyweyweyweyweywororororords:ds:ds:ds:ds: SHEQ-PC (Safety, Health, Environment, Quality,Productivity and Cost), Voice of Customer (VOC), gap.

Necessitating Manufacturing RequirementsGreen Foundry practice calls, for the concern, all customers andstakeholders which includes the infrastructure, energy and eventhe neighbourhood tree. With the current impetus to greenproduction, the world gives due cognizance to a basic premise offulfilling customer requirements; yet the condition that allorganisations “meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders(Poksinska et al., 2002 [1])” is still not fully complied with. The gapin some cases is more than what deserves caution. Notwithstandingthe fact that customer is generally the end user/ judge foroutcome/ product, he is also the recipient of the pains of

nonconforming situations [2] when the product is non-performing,or has redundant components not of immediate use to him. Oftenwhen a customer receives a product (delivery against payment forhis particular requirements); some uncalled for byproductsadditionally also get associated with the deliveries. What thecustomer pays for is known as “Value-Added’. Delivering any non-value added component is essentially a burden on the supplier(entailing extra costs), or on customer (associates extra burden onhim). There is therefore a considerable scope available for cuttingdown expenses on such redundancies.

Moreover, non-fulfilment of customer requirements is equally taxingfor supplier, who has to pay through his comfort of survival. Itbecomes especially true when the list of customers extends fromdirect and downline customers to larger army of legislative andstatutory bodies, Government, society, and even mother earth.Thus, the deterring aspects of customer’s neglect may extendbeyond the organisational boundaries.

While stipulating the fitness to meet customer’s needs, MahatmaGandhi argued customer is the vital member who pumps vigourinto organisations lifeline, and thus, he (customer) customarilydeserves acclaim for this favour on him (Exhibit I). Only by sustainedQuality service, he (supplier) shall be enthused for a repeatpatronisation.

In fact “Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customersthat boast about your project or service, and that bring friends withthem” (W. Edwards Deming). The learning calls for creating ourown customers base which always remains loyal with theorganisation and help the organisation sustain in the competitiveglobal market. The binding force however is based upon a goodproduct (or service), and is sufficiently elastic to accommodate

Green Foundry Development Through CastingSimulation and QFD

Amrinder Singh Chahal and Priyavrat TharejaAmrinder Singh Chahal and Priyavrat TharejaAmrinder Singh Chahal and Priyavrat TharejaAmrinder Singh Chahal and Priyavrat TharejaAmrinder Singh Chahal and Priyavrat TharejaDepartment of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh

E-mail : [email protected]

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Exhibit I : The PExhibit I : The PExhibit I : The PExhibit I : The PExhibit I : The Perererererssssspppppectivectivectivectivective of a Custe of a Custe of a Custe of a Custe of a Customer deomer deomer deomer deomer definefinefinefinefined bd bd bd bd by Mahay Mahay Mahay Mahay Mahatma Gtma Gtma Gtma Gtma Gandhiandhiandhiandhiandhi

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him.He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it.

We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

RRRRReeeeef . htf . htf . htf . htf . httttttp://wwwp://wwwp://wwwp://wwwp://www.hinduonnet..hinduonnet..hinduonnet..hinduonnet..hinduonnet.cccccom/2000/10/15/om/2000/10/15/om/2000/10/15/om/2000/10/15/om/2000/10/15/stststststorieorieorieorieories/1315046ys/1315046ys/1315046ys/1315046ys/1315046y.htm.htm.htm.htm.htm

minor fluctuations in product /process Quality, yet strong enoughto stipulate continual all-round improvement.

Though a product is invariably designed keeping customer’srequirements in mind, yet in dynamic state of changing customers’preferences and perspectives, the implementation becomes morestrategic. Worthiness in terms of customer accrues only, when andif all the slated requirements by customer are satisfied. AssertsPerera “Customer is the king and kings don’t behave like beggars”.Stipulating their voice, potently, is thus the roost the organisationsmust continually serve. It augurs well with the Michael Leboeuf‘spremise that “Every company’s greatest assets are its customers,because without customers there is no company.” The consumer’scome next. It includes the operator himself, strongly impacted bythe polluting equipment. He is even closer than the neighbourhoodtree impacted next by the defaulting machine [3].

Injustice to Customers without VoicedManufacturer these days face critical competition while undergoingvital phase of development. During each crisis, the attention towardthe customers’ voices get a further beating. The process of‘conventionally used practices is not seen to take into considerationthe auxiliary customers…’ namely, the society or Government. Thevoice of the process paradigm generally considers customer whopay the proceeds in exchange of the product. It fails when thesystem may not consider the larger gamut of pain bearers: theconsumers. Most auxiliary outcomes of processes, namely theecosystem or say, society get the residual brunt. Their expectationsfrom the manufacturing people (say, metalcasters) are frequentlyneglected, and seldom considered at the design stage. Evidently,an ignorant and unaware process of rendering exacting customer’srequirements is the biggest anti-quality defines of any process.

The present work is an attempt to give ears to such voices ofvarious customers (may be noise). Once a complete set of inputs isaccumulated, the suitable designing rigour may then be followed.Failing which – it is implied that incomplete inputs can never yieldholistically applicable solutions. The organisations mustdemonstrate due focus for successful consummation ofmanufacturing competence.

Why Customers FocusThe focused customer approach emanates from the fact thatwealth for producer lies only in the fact that the product displaysefficient performance, after it is manufactured and put to use.Customers are not only source of income (money), but also ideas

and more customers are at publicity by mouth. They sometimesallow necessary resources (ideas) for production. Any unpleasedcustomer is a humiliated phase of industry; therefore,manufacturers have to sensibly satisfy stated requirements frommost of these customers and the effort is larger the better.Stipulating customer importance, Peter Drucker argues, “There isonly one valid definition of business purpose - to create a customer’.Having created customers, the next step is to satisfy them:‘customer satisfaction’ has become the great watchword of businessas the century ends”. The organisations therefore set up chase-able but optimistic goals to keep-up their (customer’s) perspective,and be aware that any violation of this requirement will spell adisaster for the organisation and ultimately for the society whenthey remain deprived of possible increase in Quality of life.

Investiture of Eco-friendly ManufacturingArguing quality Drucker ensures “Quality in a service or product isnot what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets outof it.” Genichi Taguchi scorns them by saying that after a producthas been shipped out of factory, all customers losses accruingbecause of errors in the product must accrue to the producer ofthe component[4]. These two complementary quotes ensureimportance of the customer and also stipulate that differentcustomers solicit different requirements, which must all be fulfilled.Therefore, one will have to cater stated requirements of all thecustomers collectively. The important role for a nature-friendlymanufacturing engineer is not limited to start thinking about thebetter alternative approaches, but additionally collaborate toincrease the overall domain of manufacturing competence,especially when the latter makes emphasis on all points of customersatisfaction.

Every product, which is being manufactured, is slated to beconsumed by the end-users, as a consequence, the efficiency ofstipulated requirement attributes assures continual growth of firm.To justify holistic customers’ requirement, alteration in the processhierarchy proves to be a good idea. And such a revised hierarchy, inwhich process design stage is significantly guided by the customervoice, is shown in Fig. 1 and confirms requisite appropriately.

Such customer-oriented hierarchy, in which process design andprocess voice is drastically dependent on customers’ voice, theprocess is rather misguided when primary customer’s voice ismissing. In other ways, there are two types of customers: onewhose voice was included, and the other who got neglected.


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Process RequirementWhen process design addresses forward component development,it helps estimate the process capability in parallel with customers’stated requirements. There is a potential gap between the two,which must be clubbed. Initiatives are always aligned, thanks tothe pull from customers. However, there are some customers whodo not exert their voice - namely the, Environment and Society. Callthem as ‘Non-voicing customers. They bear the brunt with defectshaving fun. Say the occurrence of defects in the manufacturing is aresult of possible deviation in process parameters. The side or extraresources deployed result in environmental aspects. Defects slowdown the production rate and necessitate rework/ repetition ofsome processes, demanding (by passed) consumption of extraenergy. Therefore, for optimised and eco-friendly manufacturing,one of the suggested models is defect-free production. Processmotto should spell as “minimisation of wastages”, which as a byproduct will call for more attention to process attributes, and pushproduction up in terms of optimum Quality. The effect ofminimisation of defects on eco-friendly productivity and quality ofthe product is shown in Fig. 2. If there are no wastages, the outputis larger and environmentally friendlier.

Fig. 2 : Optimised Eco-friendly Output by Minimising Wastages.

Casting Metals at Eco-Society PremisesMetalcasting is a versatile technology of shaping metals and alloysof wide complexities. These complexities are the causes of materialrejections, resulting in rework or price concessions because of lowerqualities. In any foundry, auxiliary customers are not always satisfied.In order that they are also supported, their requirements shouldalso be merged with the main attributes being considered forrequisite process/ product design. When voices of all types ofcustomers of foundry are evaluated, the total list should includecomponents as follows :

Functions Soundness Cost Environment / Society

Fig. 1: Stipulating Dependency of Process Design and ProcessVoice on the Customer Voice.

These demanded attributes are also shown in Fig. 3 using S-H-E-Q-P-C tool (Safety, Health, Environment, Quality, Productivity, andCost)[5]. Preliminary analysis of this acronym is very enlightening.Like the feminine counterpart, SHE components are feeble, andneed to be cared for. On the other hand, the suffixed componentsQPC (Quality, Productivity, and Cost) are focused for lowest costwith higher productivity and highest quality. Productivity has a lowerprecedence to quality, because if quality suffers, the highproductivity is of no use, or the productivity has already undergonea beating. Archimedes said – give me a lever long enough, and Ishall move the world. The parable for foundrymen is ‘give me aSHEQ long enough, and I shall use the ‘PC’ to move the world’ (theway my organisation wants to sway the customer).

Fig. 3: Requisite Attribute by All CustomersEvaluated Using SHEQ-PC Tool.

Figure 3 shows the desperate need of some kind of remedy to avoiddissatisfaction of any customer. But, before commencing with suchnew ideas for optimised product, some gaps between Voice ofCustomer (VOC) and Voice of Process (VOP) has to be minimised.There exist many gaps between VOC and VOP at different levels ofthe demands, and is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4: Gaps within the Different Levels of VOC and VOP.


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The gap in Fig. 4 can be referred in terms of a communication gaplined up within the different levels of VOC and VOP, and needs to beminimised / removed using some scientific approach. One suchkind of technique is the simulation of casting. Casting simulationsoftwares are used in foundry industry and efficiently estimate theoutput much before the actual production. That promisesconsiderable savings (allowing green productivity initiatives), andalso a design time for planning more complex shapes, forincorporating voices of additional customers. Ravi defines simulationas the process of imitating a real phenomenon using a set ofmathematical equations implemented in a computer programme[6].

Simulation of casting drastically improves the competency of thecasting manufacture, and also the satisfaction level of the largerfile of customers. Through this work, the importance of simulationis attempted for evaluation w. r . t . stipulated customers’requirements. For the purpose of comparison between simulatedapproach and traditional foundry approach, the tool - QualityFunction Deployment (QFD) is used.

Deploying Functionality of Quality AttributesQFD is a structured method, developed by Akao (1990) “…. totransform user demands into design quality, to deploy the functionsforming quality, and to deploy methods for achieving the designquality into subsystems and component parts, and ultimately tospecific elements of the manufacturing process.” [7] Quality FunctionDeployment works on the basic House of Quality (HOQ) fordetermining the customers’ needs and transforms these needs intothe process voice as shown in Fig.5.

Fig. 5: Constructs of Quality Function –Five RoomHouse and a Roof.

In the extreme left of the house, customers’ requirement i.e. voiceof customer (VOC) are placed, duly collected from surveyingcustomers, and converted from stated voice to technicalrequirements. The second step is to evaluate one’s own performancewith that of competitors which helps compare how well thisorganisation met the voice of customers as compared to that of hercompetitors. This matrix for peer comparison is on the extreme

right. This comparison is done by giving a ranking “between” 1 to 5to different organisations for their processes of fulfilling customers’requirements. That helps in understanding organisations provisionwell. The third matrix to be filled in is the top box below the roof.The bigger square - called interrelationship matrix is used to showthe interaction between the customer’s requirements and thetechnical requirements. It collates what’s (left) and how’s (right). Inthe roof of the house, relations between the various technicalrequirements are enumerated as strong relation, negative relationand no relation. The ‘target’ component indicates the extreme limitto which an organisation tries to fulfil the customers’ needs.

The various requirements of holistic customers for the cast productare given in Table-1.

The four main demanded requirements for a cast product of entirecustomers are given with the level of the importance andaccordingly, their relative weight has being calculated. Throughthis work, main emphasis is placed on the auxiliary customer i.e.‘Environment / Society’, which often gets neglected. These areimmensely affected by the casting process.

Environment is one such customer which is badly affected by theheat and gases released by the foundries. These heat / gases onrelease cause global warming and pollute the environment. Further,if one has to do rework over the defective products, this tends to bea vulnerable phase of the avoidable process[8].

Paradoxically, Society is the customer of the Environment, andgets affected by the bad environmental condition caused in thefoundry. Therefore, each foundryman should take the responsibilityfor saving environment, and first step for this is the defect-freeproduction.

Table-1 also compares the competitive analysis between theapproaches of two foundries vis. simulation-assisted approach andtraditional casting approach. The rating for the respective productwith desired attributes in the two cases is also assigned to them inthese columns of the Table-1. Based on these rating a graph hasbeen formed to show the difference between the two approacheswhich is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6: Competitive Analysis b/w Simulated and TraditionalApproach for Same Demanded Attributes.


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Table-1: Demanded Attributes with the Importance and Relative Weight

R o wR o wR o wR o wR o w Demanded QualityDemanded QualityDemanded QualityDemanded QualityDemanded Quality Weight /Weight /Weight /Weight /Weight / Relat iveRelat iveRelat iveRelat iveRelat ive Competit ive AnalysisCompetit ive AnalysisCompetit ive AnalysisCompetit ive AnalysisCompetit ive AnalysisN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e r A t t r i b u t e sA t t r i b u t e sA t t r i b u t e sA t t r i b u t e sA t t r i b u t e s ImporImporImporImporImpor tttttancancancancanceeeee WeightWeightWeightWeightWeight (0=worst , 5= Best)(0=worst , 5= Best)(0=worst , 5= Best)(0=worst , 5= Best)(0=worst , 5= Best)

Simulated ASimulated ASimulated ASimulated ASimulated A TTTTTrrrrraaaaadit ionald i t ionald i t ionald i t ionald i t ionalpproachpproachpproachpproachpproach ApproachApproachApproachApproachApproach

1 Function 9 25.71 4 4

2 Soundness 8 22.86 5 4

3 Cost 8 22.86 4 3

4 Environment / Society 10 28.57 5 3

Figure 6 shows the significant difference between the simulated(simulation-assisted) and traditional (casting) approach. Thesuperiority of former is clearly evident, also because it showsconsistency and better environmental performance, costs andsoundness. The information from two graphs concurs that castingsimulation is a very technical approach to fulfil the customer desires.So the result prompts the use of the simulation software in thefoundry industry. Casting Simulation software is a very handy toolfor the manufacturer; as it not only can forecast potential defects

prior to the manufacturing, it can also provide solutions to get ridof them. Therefore, the use of simulation software promotes GreenFoundry practice, and facilitates defect-free eco-friendly production.

In the present work, the demanded requirements by the entirecustomers are attempted to fulfil using the simulation approach.The demanded attributes “what’s” are translated into qualitycharacteristics “how” and a simple House of Quality has beenprepared as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7: House of Quality for the Demanded Attributes by Entire Customers.

A typical output is reproduced in Table-2 (reproduced from the output of analysis from Fig. 7).


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The technical requirements commensurate to fulfil the holisticcustomer needs duly evaluated in Table-2 above shows thesignificant importance simulation exerts on the castings.

The typical outcomes from the Table-2 are:

Need for Accurate Designating: Design accuracy ensures twodemanded attribute better i.e. Function and Soundness. It isthe most important imperative for sound and competitivefoundry practice.

First Time Right: First Time Right production favours the defect-free production. In return, it eliminates reworking and hencepromises an eco-socio-friendly product. It will also entail lowerenergy consumption.

Technology and Resources are vital to assist the foundrymenfor green casting development.

Quality Product: Easy Quality issue is a cause of further costsand delays. Quality Production ensures better deploying ofthe resources therefore, preserving resources for future.

It may be seen that the second most important outcome iscomplimentary mandate of Doing it right: First Time, (DIRFT, asproposed by Philip Crosby) every time. The authors recommendDIN-RFT (Do it now, right first time, [9]), since each second’s delayin foundries leads to dropping of temperature and hence energyloss. Lower energy costs help minimising the input cost. Evidently,drop of temperature is a dominating cause of rejections in castings.Further, not only that energy costs dominate the total processingcosts; the increased energy load of Foundry tends to affect thesustainability of Foundries [10].

This unusual functionality of the simulation-based casting promiseslowering process costs by cutting down wastes. Simulation is anoptimising tool for production of accurate casting, First Time Right,every time right.

ConclusionIn era of competition, foundry industry is bound to augment itsmaterialistic growth with a continual maturity in technology arena.It must deploy its resources in the best possible way. These daysextreme emphasis is given to maximisation of productivity and

Table-2 : Summary of the House of Quality for the Attribute Demanded by Different Customers

R o wR o wR o wR o wR o w Quality Characterist icsQual ity Characterist icsQual ity Characterist icsQual ity Characterist icsQual ity Characterist ics Minimise (Minimise (Minimise (Minimise (Minimise (▼▼▼▼▼ ) ,) ,) ,) ,) , Max Relat ionshipMax Relat ionshipMax Relat ionshipMax Relat ionshipMax Relat ionship Requirement Requirement Requirement Requirement Requirement Relat ive WeightRelat ive WeightRelat ive WeightRelat ive WeightRelat ive WeightN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e rN u m b e r (a.k .a . “Functional(a .k .a . “Functional(a .k .a . “Functional(a .k .a . “Functional(a .k .a . “Functional Maximise ( Maximise ( Maximise ( Maximise ( Maximise (▲▲▲▲▲ ) , or) , or) , or) , or) , or VVVVVa la la la la l u eu eu eu eu e WeightWeightWeightWeightWeight (R(R(R(R(Relaelaelaelaelat ivt ivt ivt ivt ive Impore Impore Impore Impore Impor tttttancancancancance)e)e)e)e)

RRRRRequirequirequirequirequirementementementementements” or “Hos” or “Hos” or “Hos” or “Hos” or “How’w’w’w’w’s”)s”)s”)s”)s”) T T T T Tarararararget (x)get (x)get (x)get (x)get (x)

1 Accurate Design ▲▲▲▲▲ 9 334.29 29.18%

2 Resources (Simulation Software) X 9 282.86 24.69%

3 Quality Product ▲▲▲▲▲ 3 202.86 17.71%

4 First Time Right Product ▲▲▲▲▲ 9 325.71 28.43%

quality, yet some auxiliary customers are still not taken intoconsideration. In the present work, an attempt was made to seekthe perseveration of the resources and also address the steps toEco-Socio-Friendly manufacturing. The use of simulation-assistedcasting is seen to offer unprecedented potential, and by using suchtechniques foundrymen can drastically maximise productivity andeco-socio-quality rich castings.

References

[1] Poksinska, B.; Kahlgaard, J.J.; Antoni, M. (2002), The State of ISO 9000Certification: A Study of Swedish Organisations”, The TQM Magazine 14 (5),http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=842040&show=abstract, retrieved 2010-11-22.

[2] Atul Vats and Priyavrat Thareja, Lining Pains & Lance Strains - A Case Studyto Competing Productivity, Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering,Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011, Pages 9-20.

[3] Thareja Priyavrat, 1989, Psychomotoring Skills in Teaching of FoundryTechnology, Proceedings of International Seminar on TeachingMethodologies, China.

[4] Taguchi Genichi , Quoted in Sundara Raju, (2001), Total QualityManagement: A Primer, New Delhi, McGraw Hill.

[5] Thareja P, (2007), Manufacturing Ordeal and Challenges to Energy-Environment-Society Infrastructure’, Journal of Education in Engineering andTechnology, Vol. 1 No. 1 Jan-June 07, National Institute of Technical TeacherTraining and Research, Chandigarh.

[6] B.Ravi, “Casting Simulation and Optimisation: Benefits, Bottlenecks, and BestPractices” Indian Foundry Journal, January 2008, Special Issue.

[7] Akao, Yoji, Development History of Quality Function Deployment, TheCustomer Driven Approach to Quality Planning and Deployment, Minato,Tokyo 107 Japan: Asian Productivity Organization. pp. 339. ISBN 92-833-1121-3.

[8] Amrinder Chahal, Thareja Priyavrat, Avtar Singh, (2010), Managing ClassRoom Quality Better - A Journey THRU QFD , Quality World, Vol IX, No. 1,Jan 2011 also available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1829993 accessed April 7, 2011.

[9] Thareja P., Sharma D.D., Mahapatra P.B., (2011),Holean Education - TheParadigm for Thee OmniScience: A Multi-disciplinary Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1,pp. 1-21, February 2011.

[10] P. Thareja, (2008), A Total Quality Organisation Through People: (Part 14)Sustainable Improvements to Worldclass Operations’, FOUNDRY, An Indian

Journal for Progressive Metal Casters, Vol. XX, No. 2, Mar/Apr.

green foundry development through casting simulation and qfd

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