Chapter 33
Analysis of Manufacturing Costs
for Powder Metallurgy (PM) Gear
Manufacturing Processes: A Case Study
of a Helical Drive Gear
Babak Kianian and Carin Andersson
Abstract This paper presents a thorough manufacturing cost analysis for a powder
metallurgy (PM) manufactured gear (using press and sintering technique—P/S),
through a case study of a R&D 4th drive gear (a helical gearwheel) utilizing both
real usage data from six companies and some estimated data from literatures. The
chosen costs calculation method, performance part costing (PPC), is comprehensive
and designed to follow the manufacturing process routes. The result is an excel based
cost calculation tool for analysis of performance driven manufacturing costs for use
by practitioners with the capability of serving as a decision support system (DSS)
in production development issues. The impacts of three scenarios of (1) gear rolling
process automation, (2) overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) parameters improvement and (3) increase in energy price on the total PM gear manufacturing costs are
simulated, results are presented and discussed, sensitivity analyses are performed,
and outcomes are further discussed.
Keywords Manufacturing cost · Powder metallurgy (PM) · Gear manufacturing ·
Decision support system (DSS) · Sustainable production · Sustainability
33.1 Background and Motivation
The automotive industry has sought for fuel economy and resource efficiency for
many decades now. The selection decisions of alternative manufacturing techniques
for a particular product (e.g. a gear) are essentially constructed with traditional
industry cost structures (Kamps et al. 2018). However, negative sustainability effects
of our production activities and their severe consequences globally has urged the
manufacturing industry to adopt a more holistic view of technology adoption and
deployment. There are many factors to consider when a manufacturer aims at
comparing different production techniques e.g. profitability, sustainability, skills
B. Kianian (B) · C. Andersson
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Division of Production and Materials Engineering, Lund
University, Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
e-mail: babak.kianian@iprod.lth.se
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability I, Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7_33
471
Analysis of Manufacturing Costs
for Powder Metallurgy (PM) Gear
Manufacturing Processes: A Case Study
of a Helical Drive Gear
Babak Kianian and Carin Andersson
Abstract This paper presents a thorough manufacturing cost analysis for a powder
metallurgy (PM) manufactured gear (using press and sintering technique—P/S),
through a case study of a R&D 4th drive gear (a helical gearwheel) utilizing both
real usage data from six companies and some estimated data from literatures. The
chosen costs calculation method, performance part costing (PPC), is comprehensive
and designed to follow the manufacturing process routes. The result is an excel based
cost calculation tool for analysis of performance driven manufacturing costs for use
by practitioners with the capability of serving as a decision support system (DSS)
in production development issues. The impacts of three scenarios of (1) gear rolling
process automation, (2) overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) parameters improvement and (3) increase in energy price on the total PM gear manufacturing costs are
simulated, results are presented and discussed, sensitivity analyses are performed,
and outcomes are further discussed.
Keywords Manufacturing cost · Powder metallurgy (PM) · Gear manufacturing ·
Decision support system (DSS) · Sustainable production · Sustainability
33.1 Background and Motivation
The automotive industry has sought for fuel economy and resource efficiency for
many decades now. The selection decisions of alternative manufacturing techniques
for a particular product (e.g. a gear) are essentially constructed with traditional
industry cost structures (Kamps et al. 2018). However, negative sustainability effects
of our production activities and their severe consequences globally has urged the
manufacturing industry to adopt a more holistic view of technology adoption and
deployment. There are many factors to consider when a manufacturer aims at
comparing different production techniques e.g. profitability, sustainability, skills
B. Kianian (B) · C. Andersson
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Division of Production and Materials Engineering, Lund
University, Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
e-mail: babak.kianian@iprod.lth.se
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability I, Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7_33
471