Track: Automation and Control

Abstract

Foundry industry in South Africa is at its life time low, with globalization and imports being the main challenge for the industry, companies which are still operational need to improve their productivity in order to remain competitive and in business. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of automation in casting operation’s productivity. This will lead to lower production cost and improving organization profit.

Quantitative study was done, cycle time and production out puts data of the machine before automation was collected and analyzed, this was compared with the data after automating the same machine loading and offloading. The results indicated that automating the machine improve productivity by 20% therefore there is evidence that automation can improve productivity.