The effect of quality on the performance and economics of mechanised assembly machines

Factors affecting component quality are discussed and a relationship between component cost and quality is given. The effect of this relationship is analysed and an optimum quality level is found to minimise total product cost, which takes account of machine reliability, machine hour rate and down-time. The parameters affecting machine reliability are reviewed and areas of machine design which require special attention are high-lighted. Dimensionless data and an optimisation procedure is presented to enable the production engineer to evaluate his particular case.