International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 2, Issue- 2, Feb.

-2014

AN APPLICATION OF PARETO ANALYSIS AND CAUSE EFFECT

DIAGRAM FOR MINIMIZATION OF DEFECTS IN MANUAL
CASTING PROCESS
1
ANIRUDDHA JOSHI, 2PRITAM KADAM
1
Student of Masters Degree in Automobile Engineering at R.I.T. College, Islampur, Maharashtra, India
2
Supervisor in Ghatage Patil Industries, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract— Casting has various processes like Pre casting Processes, pattern making, core making, molding and mold
assembly making, Casting Processes, furnace charging, melting, holding and pouring, and Post casting Processes, shakeout,
inspection and dispatch etc. In India there are many foundry have followed conventional and manual operations. Today’s
competitive environment has, lower manufacturing cost, more productivity in less time, high quality product, defect free
operation are required to follow to every foundry man. Mold shifting, Crushing, Lower Surface finish, Shrinkage, Porosity,
Cold shut and Extra material are common casting defects due to these manual operations. These defects directly affect on
productivity, profitability and quality level of organization. In this paper all data presented is taken from one foundry. This
paper presents all data of manual metal casting operations and defects leads to rejection for this organization. The paper also
represents analysis of these defects with Pareto and Cause and Effect diagrams to know correct cause and correct remedial
factors to improve quality level and productivity of organization.

Keywords: Manual Metal Casting activities, Casting Defects, Pareto Analysis and Cause and effect Diagram

I. INTRODUCTION identify and classify the reasons that are responsible

for defective casting production and lower productivity
Metal casting is one of the direct methods of of organization.
manufacturing the desired geometry of the component.
Casting or the process of foundry is very efficient and II. LITERATURE REVIEW
effective manufacturing process, which can transforms
raw material into discrete output. The principle of Wilson et al. (1993) have defined the Root Cause
manufacturing of casting involves creating a cavity Analysis as an analytical tool that can be used to
inside a sand mould and then pouring molten metal perform a corrective and comprehensive, system-
directly into mould cavity. Casting is very versatile based review of critical defects. It includes the
process being used for number of engineering identification of the root and contributory factors,
applications in today’s world. An automotive determination of defect reduction strategies, and
component is common and popular application of development of action plans along with measurement
metal casting. There are several methods involved for strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of the plans.
production of metal casting like manual and automatic. Canadian Root Cause Analysis Framework (2005)
In India manual casting production method is most says that root-cause analysis is an important
common in number of foundries. component of understanding of defects. The team
The activities involved in casting process are, Pattern begins by reviewing an initial understanding of the
making for creation of mold box, Core making for event and identifying unanswered questions and
insertion in mold assembly, fitting of pattern, gating information gaps. The information-gathering process
system and sand for mold preparation, remove includes interviews with staff, who were directly and
prepared mold and placed for pouring, fill the mold indirectly involved, examination of the physical
cavity with molten metal, allow it to solidify and at environment where the event and other relevant
last, remove the cooled desired casting. These processes took place, and observation of usual work
activities are commonly used because of its simplicity processes. This information is analyzed into a final
in process, economic to operate and easy to produce understanding, which is then used by the team to
small size castings. begin portion of the analysis. Similarly, to solve a
In this work manual metal casting operations of an problem, one must first recognize and understand
automotive component producing foundry are studied what is causing the problem. This is the essence of
where components of different size and shape are root cause analysis.
produced. In this study defects of casting processes are According to Perzyk (2007) case study in foundry
known which directly affecting rejection level of industry by, Pareto chart shows that the foundry staff
organization and reduces productivity and quality level should concentrate on reducing defects like ’sand
of industry. inclusions’ and ‘gas holes’, which make up 72% of
The defects need to diagnose correctly hence Pareto all defects. Pareto diagrams can therefore be
chart and Cause and Effect Diagram have been used to particularly useful in defining the targets. Pareto
An Application of Pareto Analysis And Cause Effect Diagram For Minimization Of Defects In Manual Casting Process
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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 2, Issue- 2, Feb.-2014

charts show the most frequently occurring factors and Uday A. Dabade and Rahul C. Bhedasgaonkar (2013)
help to make the best use of limited resources by have put their emphasis on casting defect analysis
pointing at the most important problems to analyze. using Design of Experiments and Computer Aided
Chandna and Chandra (2009) studied forging Casting Simulation Techniques. They work to
operation that produce six cylinder crankshafts used analyze the sand related and methoding related
in trucks and buses. With the help of Pareto diagrams defects in green sand casting. They applied Taguchi
critical areas are identified and forging defects of based orthogonal array for experimental purpose and
crankshaft have been prioritized by arranging them in analysis was carried out using Minitab Software for
decreasing order of importance. Then Cause and analysis of variance and analysis of mean plot. Also
Effect Diagram (CED) is applied to explore possible they worked for shrinkage porosity analysis using
causes of defects through brain storming session and casting simulation technique by introduction of new
to determine the causes, which have the greatest gating system design. So the results obtained to them
effect. The corrective measures reduce the rejection with new gating and feeding system design are
rate from 2.43% to 0.21%. reduction in shrinkage porosity about 15% and
Khekalei et.al (2010) presented another case of improvement in yield about 5%.
wastage reduction in a belt manufacturing industry From the literature review it is revealed that
located in the Virabha, India which produces world successful application of Pareto analysis and CED
class automotive belts and hoses. The main raw can significantly reduce the defects of manual casting
material for producing this automotive belt is rubber. operations and increases efficiency. In this paper sand
Others raw materials are biased fabric and cord. From preparation, mold making, pouring and shakeout
many years consumption of raw material was not processes are considered for reducing defects rate.
taken seriously as rubber is reusable. But other raw
material that is biased fabric and cord consumption III. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
was increased drastically which resulted in increased
in the production cost of belt and reduced profit There are varieties of problems related to product
margin. Wastages in the belt manufacturing process quality and productivity in industries due to varying
are- cord wastages, fabric wastages, in-process degrees of abnormality and inefficiency, which
wastages. Cord and fabric wastages occurred during ultimately causes rejection of components. The study
drum building process while in-process wastages conducted in automotive component manufacturing
occurred during cutting operation. DMAIC (Define, foundry where mold shifting, crushing, shrinkage,
Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) has been porosity, flashes, surface finish, buckling and cold
used to reduce cord wastages in belt manufacturing. shut-Mis-run are the most important defects
The analyze phase focuses on the potential causes observed. The percentage occurrence of these defects
that are identified by using cause-and-effect diagram, is mold shifting 5.30%, crush 2.11%, shrinkage 4.34,
which have the maximum impact on the operational cold shut/Mis run 3.14%, surface finish 4.56%,
wastages. CED presents a chain of causes and effects, buckling 4.66%, porosity 3.32%, fins/ flashes 6.89%.
sorts out causes, organizes relationship between The defects are due to improper mold making
Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) and root causes. After process, improper sand preparation process and
analyzing collected data, it is found out that tension improper pouring process. In this paper, the
setting in drum building and left over cord were the identification of defects corresponding to manual
major causes for high cord wastage. The result operations has been taken. With the help of Pareto
showed reduction in cord wastage from 549531 to diagrams, the defects in every step are arranged in
17240, also the Sigma Level is improved from 1.37 to decreasing order of occurrence. The cause and effect
3.6. diagram is used to organize and graphically show
Mohiuddin Ahmed, Nafis Ahmad (2011) works for interrelation ship between various causes of
minimization of defects in lamp production process problems.
by application of Pareto analysis and Cause and
Effect Diagram. They worked for zero waste and zero IV. OVERVIEW OF PRODUCTION LINE
defect aim. They studied all lamp production process
with its production data. They also work for data An automotive components like Engine flange,
collection of all steps involved for lamp production Engine flange, Cylinder head cover, Bearing
with month wise rejection in group production Housing, Flange for Inlet, Housing for Crank Shaft,
system. The author applies Pareto analysis to all Trance Case Cover, Pipe for Turbocharger, Inlet
defects and finds major and minor contributors. So Hose, Pillow Block, Base Plate And Housing Lever
finally author applies cause and effect diagrams to etc. are produced in foundry which is studied. All
each defect and find out main factor. So they suggest these components are manufactured in this foundry
cause and effect diagram is very use full in indicating with manual operations of sand preparation, mold
the appearance of abnormalities of process in the making, melting, pouring and shakeout. So, all the
form of excessive variations of process parameters. process details are explained below with process flow
chart. The process flow chart clears all operational

An Application of Pareto Analysis And Cause Effect Diagram For Minimization Of Defects In Manual Casting Process
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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 2, Issue- 2, Feb.-2014

details with sequence of operations occurred in some processes which are followed manually. In
foundry industry. But manual activities are explained organization cope and drag molds are used.
in detail below.
Although, the metal casting producing plants are 3. Pouring:
jobbing or production type, the basic operations are Pouring is the process of foundry which is nothing
never going to change for any component of metal but insertion of molten metal in molds for production
casting. The foundry studied has jobbing type of of casting. Pouring section includes ladles which are
metal casting operations. So to operate this plant used to pour the molten metal in molds. Prepared
skilled labours are required. Hence this is totally molten metal is poured in ladles which are taken
labour dependant organization. The foundry industry away to pour into molds manually. In industry four
has variety of operations which are performed for hand ladles are there which are used to pour molten
production of required sized and shaped metal casting metal in mold box.
with following process sequence shown in fig.1.
4. Shakeout:
After molten metal has been poured into mold boxes it
is permitted to cool and solidify. When the casting has
solidified it is removed from molding box. This
operation is marked as Shakeout. In organization
shakeout is also done manually. The process like dump
the mold assembly upside down on ground. Break the
sand around the casting by striking against the sand
with the back of hammer, the casting can then be
pulled out of the sand with the hook bar etc .so all is
done manually.

V. DATA COLLECTION

The rejection data was obtained from foundry and

placed in tabulated form for convenience to use and
understand. Rejection check sheets are generally large
data sheets showing the total information about
rejected items. Simplified data from rejection sheet is
represented in the following table. Data shows the
total pouring per month and data is of three months.
Rejection of total components is given in following
table. 1.
Fig.1. Process Flow Diagram
Table.1. Defects and Percentage of Occurance
Activities performed manually are:
1. Sand Preparation:
In foundry industry sand is used for mold making
process. In this industry there are three mullers which
are used for mulling and mixing of sand with other
constituents like water, bentonite etc. all the process
related to mulling like insertion of sand etc. is done
manually. So due to this manual operation sand
properties are not properly obtained and production
of prepared sand is in less quantity. So it reflects on
overall productivity of mold boxes.

2. Mold Making:
Mold is nothing but small cavity which when poured VI. PARETO CHART
with molten metal produces a casting of desired shape.
The process of this making mold with mold assembly Pareto Analysis is conducted for identification of major
preparation is known as mold making. Mold making is defects those are contributing in major rejection
a major important process of sand casting. In foundry percentage. Pareto gives correct identification hence
industry this mold making process is performed it is conducted. Pareto shows all defects and their
manually with hand controlled tools. The activities like related percentage. So according to Pareto fins and
placing of pattern, mold box, insertion of sand, flashes are major defects and other contributing to it.
insertion of gating system components, ramming of It was necessary to find out actual reasons behind the
sand in mold box and mold assembly formation are defects with use of Cause and Effect Diagram for

An Application of Pareto Analysis And Cause Effect Diagram For Minimization Of Defects In Manual Casting Process
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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 2, Issue- 2, Feb.-2014

analysis purpose. All cause and effect diagrams of

each defect is shown below.

VII. CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAMS

Cause and Effect Diagram is one of the approaches to

enumerate the possible causes. Following section shows
all cause effect diagram for all defects occurred in
organization

All above figures shows the cause and effect

diagrams for each defect. This determines the
potential cause which causes defects. These defects
after the particular cause has been identified,
remedies are suggested to eliminate these defects.

An Application of Pareto Analysis And Cause Effect Diagram For Minimization Of Defects In Manual Casting Process
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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume- 2, Issue- 2, Feb.-2014

VIII. REMEDIES TO CAUSES AND CONCLUSION

EFFECTS
Pareto principle and cause effect diagram are used to
So all these defect are due to manual operations of identify and evaluate different defects and causes for
metal casting. These defects results loss of these defects responsible for rejection of components
productivity and profit to organization. Following at different stages of manual metal casting operations.
some remedial issues are suggested for minimization
of these losses. The correct identification of the casting defect at
1. Change operating system from manual to initial stage is very useful for taking remedial actions.
automatic This paper presents the systemic approaches to find
2. Change hardness of mold box; install Air cause of defects occurred due to manual operations.
blasting rammers or automatic rammers for So finally it was found that the manual metal casting
ramming of sand in mold box. operations are done with some negligence and
3. Proper clamping of mold box on mold machine carelessness. So by suggesting some other remedial
or use automatic mold box production issues and by implementing possible of them reduces
machine. total rejection more than 30%. If suggested remedy of
4. Use appropriate sand adequate green automation will be implemented it reduces all defects
compressive strength and other mixing more than 70%. This systematic study proves that by
properties; it is possible with automatic means of effective analysis of tools and processes, it
mulling machines. is possible to control the casting defects.
5. For smooth and in time pouring replace
manual hand ladles with automatic monorail REFERENCES
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