7 Robust design: Experiments for improving quality

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the planning, analysis, and interpretation of robust design experiments and the role they play in quality improvement, with special emphasis on issues relating to experimental design. Robust design refers to quality engineering activities whose goal is the development of low-cost, yet high quality products and processes. A key tool in robust design is the use of statistically planned experiments to identify factors that affect product quality and to optimize their nominal levels. The goal of a robust design experiment is to find settings of the design factors that achieve a particular response with high consistency. The most common objectives include (1) maximizing the response, (2) minimizing the response, and (3) keeping the response on target. The use of split plot designs, combined arrays and sequential experimentation will help reduce the size of robust design experiments. Recent initiatives to use response surface methodology in robust design are also a step in the right direction. Robust design experiments can provide the knowledge necessary to make effective design choices by discovering the input factors that affect product quality.

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