Category: Robust Design/Taguchi Method

When you have multiple factors at different levels, it can be challenging to figure out which is the optimal combination. Design of Experiments is one common method you can use. The Taguchi Method is another.

The Robust Design method, also called the Taguchi Method, pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi, greatly improves engineering productivity. By consciously considering the noise factors (environmental variation during the product’s usage, manufacturing variation, and component deterioration) and the cost of failure in the field the Robust Design method helps ensure customer satisfaction. Robust Design […]

Your organization may have any number of possible areas for improvement. How do you pick which project to start with? The value index can help you prioritize by measuring optimization between performance, quality and cost.

A high-tech company was exploring the use of haptics to provide gentle haptic vibration with wearable devices (Figure 1) for future customers, including tweens (children around 11 or 12 years old). Haptics involve how users perceive tactile feedback from a device. Mobile devices typically provide haptic sensations and responses using vibrations of various frequencies, amplitude, […]

Robust Ground to Air Communication Receiver Case Study FM data demodulator is a critical part of ground to air communication receivers used in aircrafts. It should be designed to minimize the bit error rate (BER). The main concept of demodulation is to convert the received RF signal to baseband voltage signal, sample it at the […]

Financial assessment of process improvement activities is the cornerstone to project selection and to benefit evaluation. Representatives from finance organizations, charged with such a task, may be confronted with assessing a large number of projects out of many different areas within their company. For a detailed benefit assessment, often the mechanics of the process in […]

From September 2006 to December 2008 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed several weapon programs and identified problems resulting in billions of dollars in cost overruns, long schedule delays and reduced weapon system availability. The major reason for these reliability problems was poor systems engineering practices related to requirements analysis, design and testing. The GAO […]

One of the most popular metrics used in assessing Six Sigma projects, both DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), is defects per million opportunities (DPMO). This measurement is the average number of defects per unit observed during an average production run divided by the number of opportunities for making […]

The definition for Six Sigma was clear from the beginning – 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO), allowing for a 1.5-sigma process shift. But the definition for zero defects is not so clear. Perhaps zero defects refers to the domain beyond 3.4 DPMO. Or perhaps it refers to designing defects out of the process or product, […]