Quality Management in the Manufacturing Process of Iron Casts on Foundry Lines

The paper presents issues of quality management related to iron casts manufactured on automated foundry lines for automobile industry. The influence of the choice of electric furnace and automated foundry line with vertical or horizontal mould division on the quality of casts made of nodular or grey cast iron was presented. Analysis of different scenarios of the course of action manufacturing processes was performed basing on a simulation experiment, record data related to the quality of the manufactured casts and manufacturing prime costs analysis. The research used universal tools applied in simulation analysis of production systems (Rockwell Automation: Arena Simulation Software) and a spreadsheet used for cast manufacture cost estimation. The proposed variants have been assessed using the Pareto analysis on the basis of results of reports generated for a simulation experiment. The paper also presents suggestions of activities aimed at further improvement of the quality of foundry processes.