Unit Manufacturing Process Models for Ferromagnetic and Non-Ferromagnetic Alloy Surface Inspection Methods

Abstract

Industrial use of natural resources are increasing at an alarming rate. Engineering and decision support tools are needed for analyzing and curbing industrial consumption of resources. Further, assessment methods to measure and indicate continuous improvement are also needed. Modeling individual manufacturing processes facilitates the generation of quantifiable evidence that improvements are being made. Such a modeling approach is developed and demonstrated in this paper to characterize sustainability performance of two metals inspection processes: magnetic particle inspection for ferromagnetic alloys and penetrant inspection for non-ferromagnetic alloys. Individual unit manufacturing process (UMP) models were developed by observing the inspection practices at an aircraft component manufacturer, and a mathematical basis for comparison with other inspection processes was identified. The paper further demonstrates the aggregation of performance metrics from all UMPs across a manufacturing process flow thus providing a basis for generating detailed sustainability performance assessments of manufactured products. By developing and documenting a comprehensive set of UMP models, more complete knowledge of manufacturing processes can be gained by industry practitioners, leading to continuous improvement of sustainability performance.