Implementation of Metal Casting Best Practices - EERE - U.S. ...

5.2 Reluctance in Investigation for Root Cause
A commonly observed aspect during this analysis was that many foundries and die casters were
not committed to determining the root cause of the imperfections in their products or in the
facility used for their production. Due to the economic pressures of the competitive metal casting
industry, many casters solely focus on shipping products fast rather than on minimizing number
of imperfections. In general, the metal caster will incorporate the expense of the imperfections
into their cost structure rather than exploring opportunities to reduce or eliminate these expenses.
There is a willingness to accept high level of imperfections, which creates a culture of complying
with mediocrity. While this phenomenon does not always occur throughout an entire plant, it was
frequently observed in specific areas of a plant. One case that exemplified this phenomenon was
the extremely high scrap rate on a particular part produced at Die Casting Facility-2 (page 42).
This plant had an internal scrap rate of over 20% on a particular casting. Thus, in order to
produce 100 good castings, the facility had to produce 125 castings overall. The facility had five
die casting machines working round the clock to produce this casting, which meant that one
machine each day was essentially dedicated to producing scrap castings. This part is a legacy
part that was designed 10 to 15 years ago. Initially the facility had examined ways to reduce the
scrap rate of this part. However, they abandoned searching for a permanent remedy after several
failed efforts. Die Casting Facility-2 accepted the flawed process and instead incorporated the
expense of this scrap rate into their cost of doing business. Eppich Technologies when visiting
another die caster who had reduced its internal scrap rate from 35% to 25% noted a similar
instance. Having achieved this drop, the facility was content with the improved performance and
abandoned efforts for further scrap reduction. Thus, a 25% scrap level became acceptable. These
examples are two extreme cases. Nonetheless, these types of practices will greatly jeopardize a
plant’s ability to compete in the long run.
Some facilities were found to seek solutions in some areas but ignore problems in others. For
example, at Die Casting Facility-1 (page 36), management implemented a number of industry
best practices and incorporated a number of Metal Casting R&D project results into their
operation. The facility was at the cutting edge of implementing fatigue-resistant die materials due
to their participation in critical plant trials performed by a university and funded by the Metal
Casting R&D portfolio. The facility widely publicized this effort and has become an advocate for
the research results. Yet the facility tended to overlook some simple housekeeping improvements,
such as ignoring the need to keep their furnace openings sealed. A significant amount of
hydraulic oil was observed on the floor and considerable heat was being lost through furnace
openings. Preliminary calculations showed that the heat loss was approaching their profit of
approximately $1 million in sales. There seemed a willingness to accept these inefficiencies and
factors within the melting department. However, in other departments, such as machining
operations, housekeeping was exceptional. This shows the lack of departmental champions or
commitment by plant management to hold all of the departments to a common standard.
Committing to the investigation and elimination of root causes has improved product reliability,
competitiveness, and the financial bottom line at Aluminum Casting Facility-1 (page 75). This
facility participated in a research program, Improvements in Efficiency of Melting for Die
Casting, conducted by a team from Case Western Reserve University with cost-share funding
from Metal Casting R&D. During their site visit, the team from Case Western took metal
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