Quotation for the Value Added Assessment during Product Development and Production Processes

TL;DR

This paper presents an innovative approach linking economic factors with technical and methodological aspects to evaluate and control production processes through detailed quotation factors and numerical traceability.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive numerical model for cost evaluation and process control, integrating feedback loops for real-time data in a fully automated steel casting environment.

Findings

Effective cost control over six months

Complete process traceability enabled

Real-time data improves process accuracy

Abstract

This communication is based on an original approach linking economical factors to technical and methodological ones. This work is applied to the decision process for mix production. This approach is relevant for costing driving systems. The main interesting point is that the quotation factors (linked to time indicators for each step of the industrial process) allow the complete evaluation and control of, on the one hand, the global balance of the company for a six-month period and, on the other hand, the reference values for each step of the process cycle of the parts. This approach is based on a complete numerical traceability and control of the processes (design and manufacturing of the parts and tools, mass production). This is possible due to numerical models and to feedback loops for cost indicator analysis at design and production levels. Quotation is also the base for the design requirements and for the choice and the configuration of the production process. The reference values of the quotation generate the base reference parameters of the process steps and operations. The traceability of real values (real time consuming, real consumable) is mainly used for a statistic feedback to the quotation application. The industrial environment is a steel sand casting company with a wide mix product and the application concerns both design and manufacturing. The production system is fully automated and integrates different products at the same time.