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safer than it had been previously. The one fatal accident that had occurred in the company
over the past five years had happened in this area, as had two of the serious injuries. The
expenditure would be shared with the machining and assembly areas, and would provide a
wide range of additional cost savings in these parts of the production process.
Though this FMS system could be installed in isolation in the production plant it would be
much more sensible to combine the design and manufacture into a single computer aided
design, computer aided manufacturing facility (CADCAM). The research department would
also require substantially increased training in the new techniques, especially in decision
making on new product development.
Here the additional time that would be involved could be substantially reduced by the use
of expert systems as a training aid. Carron Associates listed two such expert systems in
use in engineering companies which could be made purchased for € 10,000. Finally, you
are determined that the research department should be more involved in day to day
contact with the shop floor. This will mean the research department taking part in a greater
number of quality circle meetings and discussions. The impact of all these changes and
the time implications are listed in Table 14 in Appendix A.
Foundry
Your early information was that the foundry is the most modern part of the Burke
Engineering plant. You expect that Carron Associates will not be able to suggest many
improvements in this area of the company. This is in fact the case. Though the amount of
work for the foundry will substantially increase as a result of the changes in the business
plan for casting and checking, there are few improvements that can currently be made to
improve the productivity of the foundry.
You are concerned that the foundry is still a dangerous environment with two serious
incidents over the past five years. The only worthwhile means of improving safety would
be to install robotic arms to handle the molten metal. This would cost around € 50,000 and
would also have the effect of reducing speed and productivity in the area.
Carron Associates do however inform you that the new generation of automatic foundries
will be available within the next three years, and investment in this could substantially
change the pattern of working within this area. You are committed as elsewhere to
increasing the amount of involvement of foundry staff in the decision making process and
to increase the level of training that each individual receives. All of these have the effect of
increasing the overall level of working hours within the foundry.
The only improvement that Carron Associates could suggest was in the reduction of the
existing dead time within the foundry while staff were waiting for material or tools. The
application of a production scheduling programme would make this part of the factory and
others function far more effectively. The cost of this would be relatively insignificant, and
could be accessed by terminals throughout the factory.
The overall cost of terminal installation and the creation of a network throughout the
factory is estimated at € 80,000. This network would be used by many departments and
will be referred to in other analyses. The overall impact of the various changes upon the
total hours worked in the foundry is included in Table 14 in Appendix A.
Machining
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