Torque Management and ROI Improvement

Many firms in the vehicle maintenance and tire markets have viewed torque control primarily as a “necessary evil”.

This approach is the opposite of that taken by manufacturers worldwide. Over the last 30 years the manufacturing community has learned that:

• Improper fastener tensioning has surprisingly high nonconformance (error) costs.
• The frequency with which these costs are incurred is far higher than previously thought.
• These nonconformance costs are measurable.
• Torque control-related nonconformance costs are avoidable on a very cost-effective basis.
• Torque management during product assembly is as important as component quality.
• The return on investment in a sound torque management system reduces hard and soft costs and improves profitability directly and indirectly.

Performing maintenance on a vehicle requires the disassembly and then the proper reassembly of the components in the vehicle.  Since threaded fasteners are used in holding a large percentage of the joints in a vehicle together, obtaining the appropriate clamping force for these threaded fastener joints is imperative.

One of the most basic textbooks concerning assembly with threaded fasteners is An Introduction to the Design and Behavior of Bolted Joints by John H. Bickford. In his book (First Edition), Mr. Bickford states unequivocally:

“In a bolted joint, the thing which interconnects the parts are the bolts. Their sole function is to clamp and/or pin the joint members together. The behavior and life of that joint, furthermore, usually depend as much, if not more, on the “correctness” of the clamping force holding the parts together than on any other design factor, often outweighing the importance of such obviously important factors as the selection of joint materials, joint dimensions, tolerances, finish, etc.”

When reassembling components of the vehicle you have the ability to control the torque – hence the clamping force – holding the components together.

 The performance – or lack of performance – of any and every vehicle on which your firm works affects your profitability both directly and indirectly. Those vehicles that leave with the repairs properly performed go out on the road and turn miles. Those vehicles that do not will increase your costs, be you a fleet or a service provider. The experience of the factories that make the vehicles is just as applicable to their maintenance as it is to their manufacture.

Revenue – Expense = Profit. Business 101 – reduce your costs to increase your profits.

So how do you measure whether an investment in torque management will pay for itself and result in an ongoing expense reduction and improved long-term profitability? What cost categories exist and how do they relate to each other and your total costs?

That requires a basic understanding of quality cost categories; what they are and what goes into each. Which just happens to be the subject covered here.

Tenexes Div. of Ryeson Corporation
3203 N. Wolf Road • Franklin Park, IL 60131
Phone: 847/260-2050 or 563/249-4170 • Fax: 847/455-0347

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