A quality/cost-based improvement approach for conceptual process planning

Abstract

This paper proposes an approach to develop a quality/cost-based conceptual process planning (QCCPP). This approach aims to determine key process resources with estimation of manufacturing cost, taking into account the risk cost associated to the process plan. It can serve as a useful methodology to support decision making during the initial planning stage of the product development cycle. Quality function deployment (QFD) method is used to select process alternatives by incorporating a capability function for process elements called a composite process capability index (CCP). The quality characteristics and the process elements in QFD method have been taken as input to complete process failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) table. To estimate manufacturing cost, the proposed approach deploys activity-based costing (ABC) method. Then, an extended technique of classical FMEA method is employed to estimate the cost of all risks associated to studied process plan, this technique is called cost-based FMEA. For each combination of resources, cost-based FMEA proposes a set of recommended actions, estimates their cost and the risk cost. The output data gathered in this approach are used to perform decision guidelines for detailed process planning in order to improve product quality/cost ratio. A case study is presented to illustrate this approach.