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May 2016
Percent
by ceramic sand, and then into quality staff.
the controlled drying step until the External groups:
desired shell thickness is achieved.
Alcoa and the
The wax is then melted out and the
business units
resulting shell is fired to create a hard
ceramic ready for casting. Selective
customers.
insulation that eliminates casting
defects, such as micro-shrinking, may Once these groups
2011 2012 2013
be applied at this point before the were determined and Year
shell proceeds to the casting stage. the required knowledge
During the casting step, metal is melted and skills for each group identified, skill and knowledge gaps were identified. For
under vacuum to maintain purity. example, the engineering process owners needed training on the DMAIC method,
Once melted, the mold is loaded
while the quality group required additional training on the audit process. Corporate
through a vacuum-lock system.
quality staff provided introductory training on the organizations process manage-
After the mold is cast, the gating
is removed and the castings move
ment methodology, and APP created a Six Sigma training class for its engineers.
through the post-cast operations
and quality inspection. It made sense to build upon already-existing team structures and working relation-
Once approved, the certified casting
ships at APP where there are business unit process owners and corresponding plant
is shipped to the customer. process owners. The improvement projects deployment team included members
from these process owner groups.
The project goal was to develop a sustainable methodology to reduce the APP scrap
rate by 10 percent year over year by June 2012, as depicted in Figure 1. The team
was to develop manufacturing process models for key areas, validate the methodol-
ogy at pilot locations, and then prepare a full implementation plan.
When analyzing the improvement opportunity at hand, the team quickly realized the
part-focused scrap reduction methodology, which had been used for years, reached
the point of diminishing returns. To achieve the additional scrap reductions required
to meet the stated goal, process stability became the new focus.
This is the casting portion of
the investmentcasting process. Since the investment casting process includes several complex steps, the team cre-
ated process maps to identify, understand, and analyze each step for its savings
potential. Pareto charts helped illustrate the contribution of each step to the overall
scrap rate. Brainstorming, scrap rates, and defect data were used to identify potential
Plant 1 Plant 1
Plant 2 Plant 2
Plant 3 Plant 3
By emphasizing control of the entire process, additional operators and supervisors About the Author
are engaged in more proactive roles.
The workforce is more satisfied and engaged due to greater stability, education, Janet Jacobsen is a freelance writer
andstructure. specializing in quality and compliance
With fewer daily firefighting activities, time to focus on key process metrics for topics. A graduate of Drake University,
employees increases, triggering reactions before issues become scrap problems. she resides in Cedar Rapids, IA.