QUALITY COSTS AND VALUE ENGINEERING IN THE STAINLESS STEEL COLD ROLLING PROCESS

In this study, quality costs are considered as an indicator of quality and value engineering level and the relationship between quality costs and value engineering is analysed in the case of stainless steel cold rolling process. The standard chemical limits of metal alloys are analysed, and the effect of in-boundary variables on both production and quality costs are discussed. Similar analyses were carried out for standard process boundary conditions.

It has been shown that the cold rolling process, which has the lowest value in the value stream of the production of stainless steel sheet products, is not as thought and value has been created by changing many properties of the material according to the usage area. By using processes such as raw material selection and heat treatment optimisation, two new alloys (304E and 304U) could be produced without changing the chemical structure, and production cost could be reduced with quality improvement studies parallel to value engineering. Prevention costs, an important indicator, have also been reduced.

In the study, the causes of quality cost sources are shown separately on the process and their relations with each other are analysed. Although the indicators were analysed on the stainless steel cold rolling process, they were determined to be applicable and adaptable for all continuous material productions.