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Session 3248

A Single Session, Laboratory Primer On Taguchi Methods

David Myszka University of Dayton

Abstract

Over the past decade, Taguchi Methods have become an extremely popular approach to improving the quality of products. These techniques provide a systematic approach for the application of experiments to improve the product design and production process. However, outside of quality engineering courses, there is a lack of instruction on these methods in many technical programs. All technical professionals should have an understanding of Taguchi Methods. The reason for the absence is commonly attributed to a lack of room in the curriculum. This paper describes an experiment that introduces and employs Taguchi Methods in a single laboratory session. The experiment serves as a valuable primer on Taguchi Methods.

Introduction

In the current competitive marketplace, the high quality of a product and the associated customer satisfaction are key for the survival of an enterprise. Pre-production experiments can contribute significantly towards quality improvements of a product. A traditional method of improving the quality of a product is full factorial testing. This method adjusts one factor at a time during pre-production experimentation. After changing only one parameter, or factor, the result is observed. Of course, this method has the major disadvantages of being very costly and unreliable.

Taguchi Methods advocate the changing of many factors simultaneously in a systematic way, ensuring an independent study of the product factors. The results are statistically analyzed, to determine the influence of the factors on the desired product performance. Once these factors have been adequately characterized, steps are taken to control the production process so that causes of poor quality in a product are minimized 3.

Taguchi’s main objectives are to improve process and product design through the identification of controllable factors and their settings, which minimize the variation of a product around a target response 15. By setting factors to their optimal levels, a product can be manufactured more robust to changes in operation and environmental conditions. Taguchi removes the bad effect of the cause rather than the cause of a bad effect, thus obtaining a higher quality product.

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Myszka, D. (2001, June), A Single Session, Laboratory Primer On Taguchi Methods Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9780