Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 12

DAVE MOORE President THE FOUNDRY WAY LEARNING CENTER ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS: • Knowledge is the first step in reducing scrap • Use a structured system to reduce casting scrap C asting scrap is one of the biggest concerns of all aluminum foundries and yet the true cost of foundry scrap is often underestimated by foundry management. Scrap costs are much more than just the cost of the lost part. It takes labor and material to remake the scrap casting, meeting after meeting is held to discuss scrap issues, time and effort is spent developing new foundry scrap targets, quality and operation managers spend time responding to customer returns, and customers frequently chargeback the foundry for costs incurred by receiving a defective casting. All of these combined factors significantly raise the costs of quality. When you consider the associated costs, it’s easy to see that the true cost of casting of scrap is much more than just the cost of the physical castings. The total costs of foundry scrap can vary from foundry to foundry, but it is important that they are FOUNDRY KNOWLEDGE IS KEY TO REDUCING SCRAP The FoundryWay understood and detailed for your operation. Often it is only when these true costs are revealed to management that dollars can be released and targeted at fixing the problem. Once management is willing to commit resources to solving the scrap problems, an effective scrap reduction plan be developed. The first step in any plan to reduce scrap is to ensure the foundry floor staff has the knowledge base required to identify the defect and understand what factors in the process causes it. The scrap reduction team must thoroughly apprehend the critical processes and controls of producing aluminum castings. Without proper foundry training and knowledge, it is impossible to perform an effective root cause analysis and without accurate root cause analysis, any efforts to reduce foundry scrap will be doomed to failure. It should be noted that this first step is where most foundries fail in effectively reducing scrap rates. Management must recognize that their operators, supervisors, and quality staff just can’t “Google” a defect to solve the issue on the foundry floor. For example, the Google dictionary definition of porosity is “Porosity is the state of being porous, or full of tiny holes.” In fact, this is true. However, in practice, this knowledge is of little or no use. For example, the following is a list of porosity defects in castings: • Hydrogen Porosity aka Gas Porosity • Shrinkage Porosity 40