Application of time-series analysis in foundry production

Characterization of the time-series analysis is presented, as a data mining tool which facilitates better understanding nature of manufacturing process and permits forecasting of future values of the process parameters or production results on the basis of the past data, recorded in regular intervals. The main methods and problems of the time-series analysis are presented, related to the trend function, evaluation of seasonality and significance of the information contents in the residual values. The authors' research results, related to exemplary production data collected in a foundry with Disamatic molding line (temperature of the molding sand), are presented. It is concluded that a properly performed analysis of time-series can be a useful tool for analysis and predictions of foundry production process.