Robust Design using Taguchi Methods™

Dr Taguchi laid the foundation for Six Sigma with his methods for Robust Design developed over 50 years ago. He recognised that product and process variation directly related to poor quality and a "loss to society". This variation was often caused by Noise Factors and a traditional approach to quality improvement would be to try to eliminate or control the noise. However, Noise Factors are difficult, expensive or impossible to control and this often led to a cost increase; hence the belief that high quality means high cost.

Parameter Design

Taguchi offered an alternative approach: make the product or process robust to the noise by utilising cheap and easy to control factors - Parameter Design. By this means we can achieve high quality but without the cost increase and often with a cost reduction. Some of the key concepts that Taguchi promoted include:
  • Quality loss function to highlight losses due to variation
  • Definition of robustness as insensitivity to noise (uncontrolled) factors
  • Strategies for dealing with noise factors to achieve robustness
  • Signal-to-noise ratios for measuring robustness during development
  • Orthogonal arrays (balanced experimental designs) for efficient and effective experimentation
  • Focus on the "Ideal function" - measure what you want, not what you don't want!

Robust Design training and facilitation

Having been trained by Shin Taguchi and with over 25 years experience we are uniquely placed to offer you a range of services to help your organisation benefit from the application of Robust Design. We have utilised our expertise to integrate Taguchi's approach into Design for Six Sigma (see DfSS Green Belt training) and Design of Experiments (see our 3-day DOE practitioner training). In addition we can provide a full range of stand alone Robust Design training:
  • Practitioner training workshops
  • Excel based analysis software
  • Alignment to your business priorities
  • Professional trainers to deliver your in-house material
  • Development of company specific training materials
  • Design and analysis of Robust Design experiments
  • Project selection and facilitation
Why not contact us today and discuss the options with one of our consultants?