Introduce quality processes through DOE: a case study in die casting foundry

This paper deals with various problems of industries which act as bottlenecks in the path of successful optimisation of processes, specifically for foundry units and further it chalks out an integrated approach of design of experiments (DOEs) for its implementation in product or process type industrial environments. DOEs is a structured and organised method for determining the relationships among factors affecting a process and its output. It has been suggested that DOE can offer returns that are four to eight times greater than the cost of running the experiments in a fraction of the time that it would take to run one-factor-at-a-time experiments. This paper gives scope to practitioners and industrialist to reap various financial and non-financial benefits by implementing the suggested easy to understand DOE approach to number of other manufacturing fields. Based upon the methodology proposed, a comprehensive case study in a medium scale piston foundry has been performed to validate the various quality perspectives of given optimisation approach. It is quite rare to see improvement in quality and productivity of process parameters through DOEs, specifically in Indian foundry environments.