Abstract
In this study, an extrusion process was studied in a cable manufacturing company located in Southeastern Nigeria. The critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristic considered in the study was the cable diameter and the design effort was to reduce the possibilities of having cables with inconsistent dimensions. Taguchi Orthogonal Array Design L16 (4˄2) was used to achieve the optimum parameter settings after statistically investigating the assumed correlations between the process parameters in relation to cable dimension. Thereafter, an appropriate engineering tolerance interval for the improved process was designed to tighten the existing tolerance of the process from T±0.185 to T±0.032, thus reducing the engineering tolerance by 82.7% from the initial tolerance limit. After the process improvement, the Taguchi loss function approach was used to estimate cost attributed to deviations. The loss function estimation result has shown that the cost attributed to cable diameter deviations from the nominal value reduced from the initial value of ₦7.34/coil to a reduced cost of ₦2.08/coil. The sigma level increased from 0.6 to 5.2 at the project termination stage and the estimated annual loss decreased by 72% from the baseline value.
Highlights
It is generally accepted that the high number of CTQ characteristics attached to cable manufacturing makes the possibility of having defective products almost inevitable
Over-dimensioned cable (ODC) is an indication that the process is using more Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material that is required for production, which negatively affects the company's returns on investment (ROI)
Low dimensioned cables are on the other hand attributed to insulation thickness failures, and when used in practice often leads to electrocutions as a result of energy leakages
Summary
It is generally accepted that the high number of CTQ characteristics attached to cable manufacturing makes the possibility of having defective products almost inevitable. Few of these quality considerations range from insulation thickness, conductor diameter, insulation smoothness, high voltage failure, poor conductor resistance, uniform/consistent dimension etc. The organization's approach to solving this problem has been un-systematic It has always been a thing of trial and error among the operators manning the production shifts. The Taguchi design and loss function approach were used primarily to set up the optimal control parameters for the cable extrusion and in relating quality losses in financial terms
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