Cost of breakout characterization: This has not been quantified, so far, in this plant. [The breakout piece of the casting is removed from the mould, inspected by technician and engineer – documenting the overall appearance, as well as the discernible features (such as markings on the surface). Technical report is then prepared and discussed in meetings involving engineers from production, quality assurance and research – in order to identify the root cause. In case the problem is traced to “consumables in the process”, then the
details are also conveyed to the supplier of the cited consumable in the given case. Further work is in progress, in this plant, involving academic institutes – to enable rigorous metallurgical analysis.]
Consequently, the hidden costs of a typical breakout could be calculated (with four of the five cited aspects, at present). Then, considering the indicative number of breakouts occurring per year, it was observed that the COQ (in the above perspective) was equivalent to about one half percent of the annual turnover. It was also pointed to the plant that the prevention cost would be lower by nearly an order of magnitude. The authors have convinced the plant to seriously examine the option of installing a breakout detection system. It has been visualized that the cost of investment in detection system could be
recovered even if only 10% of (imminent) breakouts are detected and prevented. Further investigation is in progress to fine-tune the COQ estimation; and to study, in detail, the potential cost benefit in terms of the breakout detection system/s (may be installed in stages, in the multiple moulds / machines in the plant). In other words,