A Computer Based Quality Management System for Ferrous Foundries - Development Application

摘要

Ferrous foundries play a major role in the Indian foundry scenario and are poised for major growth in terms of tonnage and variety due to the various impacts created by recent stress on liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. Fortunately Indian ferrous foundry industry is also taking up the challenge and looking for various avenues to improve quality and productivity performance in all operations. The concept of Foundry Process Management (FPM) is gaining significant attraction, and for this a number of well defined actions are underway steered mainly by various institutions. This includes centres of technological excellence, professional bodies and other research organisations. This paper pertains to a collaborative research in progress, whose emphasis is mainly on FPM using integrated systems approach. This research has lead to a successful development and application of a computer based Quality Management System (QMS) for ferrous foundries in an integrated environment, the details of which are presented in this paper. Initially a nation wide survey was conducted on ferrous foundries to identify the requirements of the system. A diagnostic study was carried out at a large ferrous foundry which to a considerable extent reflects the common practices of many ferrous foundries. The understanding obtained through these field studies helped to conceptualise a practical computer based QMS for'ferrous foundries. The method of Structured Systems Analysis and Design (SSAD), an effective approach in software engineering was employed to design the system and structure all specifications. This exercise involved detailed developments of Function Decomposition Diagram, Data Flow Diagram, Data Stores, Entity Relationship Diagram etc. This System design was subsequently transformed into a system of software in RDBMS framework. This QMS was subsequently validated and implemented using the real life data of the company where the diagnostic study was carried out. The results obtained appear to be very attractive for Indian ferrous foundries. All these details are presented in the paper with appropriate technical specifications and factual information.