An Investigation for the Potential of Improving the Performance of Pattern Making Process in Steel Foundries: Case Study

This paper aims to examine the opportunities for possible improvement of the systems of pattern design and manufacturing, as well as the processes of casting design and technology in steel foundries. Solving these problems will improve the casting quality, and it will also standardize the work in one of the major bottlenecks in the production of steel casting. One big Jordanian foundry is selected as a case study. The foundry is referred to as GAZAL throughout this paper. A detailed flow process chart for the pattern making process with standardized times is developed, then possible improvements to the process are proposed. Several important milestones were developed and documented, among that; the development of a complexity classification and coding scheme of 6 levels to classify the products that GAZAL produced based on several criteria’s; the development of a mathematical model that relate the production time of the pattern with the complexity level. Finally conclusions are presented at the end of the paper.