Fasteners due to their low price tend to be neglected in cost-saving considerations. However, when you understand the Total Cost of Ownership for fasteners and think of home appliances being produced in enormous quantities, it turns out, that significant savings can be achieved.

To find out the optimizing potential of an existing automatic coffee machine on the market, a well-known brand of the automatic coffee machine was disassembled into its single parts and fasteners.

Therefore, each part and fastener was carefully examined by its functionality and quality and their respective cost-saving potential and possible improvements were measured and proposed. In a home appliance as simple as a coffee machine, the following facts were discovered.

• 16 assembly groups
• 112 fasteners were found and identified
• 31 types of fastening elements were differentiated (17 screws, 7 washers, 2 nuts, and 5 others)

After the product is completely disassembled, the cost of each part and fastening element is calculated based on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). With the specific know-how of KVT-Fastening, each fastening is analyzed and compared with a possibly better solution.

12 optimization proposals were made:

• 4 immediate cost-saving opportunities
• 4 potential cost savings
• 3 quality concerns
• 1 potential cost saving with the future design change

EXAMPLE: IMMEDIATE COST-SAVING OPPORTUNITY

The brewing assembly is attached to the coffee machine with screws, washers, and nuts. The further screws (9D) are fastening smaller elements to the brewing assembly group. Because of direct or possible contact with water, stainless steel fastening elements were used. Joint assessment 9 is one of two assessments, where metric screws occur.

The cost-saving estimation is based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) principle. The TCO is the purchase price of the part plus the costs of the operation, which reflects the best true value of a single part.

Total Cost of Ownership analysis was done for 12 improvement proposals based on the following assumptions:

• quantity of coffee machines per year – 300.000 pcs.
• prices of fasteners – according to best knowledge about market prices and considering past requests for quotation from a well-known coffee machine manufacturer
• process time for current and new fastening solutions - according to best practice
• labor rate per hour in an eastern European country –€ 7,70/hour (according to Eurostat)

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