Robust Design

1
Robust Design
2
History of Robust Design

• Robust Design method is essential to improving
  engineering productivity. It was pioneered by Dr.
  Genichi Taguchi after the end of the Second World
  War. This method has evolved over the last five
  decades. Companies around the world have saved
  millions of dollars by using the method in
  diverse industries such as automobiles,
  xerography, telecommunications, electronics,
  software, etc (http//www.isixsigma.com/library/co
  ntent/c020311a.asp).

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Definition

• Robust has many definitions here are a few that
  we found.
• A process that does not change with changing
  noise.
• Designing products and processes that are
  minimally impacted by external forces such as
  environment, customer use, or manufacturing
  conditions (www.amsup.com/robust_design/).

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Taguchi Method

• The Robust Design method can also be called the
  Taguchi Method, and was pioneered by Dr. Genichi
  Taguchi. Robust Design greatly improves
  engineering productivity by consciously
  considering the noise factors environmental
  variation during the product's usage,
  manufacturing variation, and component
  deterioration. The cost of failure in the Robust
  Design method helps ensure customer satisfaction.
  Robust Design focuses on improving the
  fundamental function of the product or process.
  Robust Design facilitates flexible designs and
  concurrent engineering. It is the most powerful
  method available to reduce product cost, improve
  quality, and reduce development interval
  (http//www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020311a
  .asp).

5
Taguchis Approach

• Taguchis Quote Robust Design Not just strong.
  Flexible! Idiot Proof! Simple! Efficient! A
  product/process that produces consistent, high
  level performance despite being subjected to a
  wide range of changing client and manufacturing
  conditions (www.amsup.com/robust_design/).
• This approach costs more, takes more time, and
  isnt always successful (www.orszulik.free-online.
  co.uk/page5.html).
• This approach allows experiments to be performed
  and the product/process becomes insensitive to
  use-conditions and other uncontrollable factors
  (www.orszulik.free-online.co.uk/page5.html).

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Problems Using Robust Design

• An example of a problem with Robust Design A
  team of engineers was working on the design of a
  radio receiver for ground to aircraft
  communication. This receiver required high
  reliability, and low bit error rate for data
  transmission. Building series of prototypes to
  sequentially eliminate problems would be
  expensive. The other problem was that computer
  simulation effort for evaluating a single design
  was time consuming and expensive. So, how can
  you speed up development but assure reliability
  (http//www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020311a
  .asp)?
• Another example A manufacturer introduced a
  high speed copy machine only to find that the
  paper feeder jammed almost ten times more
  frequently than what was planned. The traditional
  method for evaluating the reliability of a single
  new design idea took several weeks. How can the
  company conduct the needed research in a short
  time and come up with a design that would not
  embarrass the company (http//www.isixsigma.com/li
  brary/content/c020311a.asp)?

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Robust Design Engineers

• Robust design allows engineers to develop
  products and processes which perform as intended
  through a wide range of users conditions in
  their life cycle which is durable and reliable
• To maximize robustness engineers improve the
  intended function of the product and increase
  their noise to factors which can lead to a
  decrease in performance.
• Engineers can change the product formulas and
  process settings to gain their desired
  performance level in the shortest time with the
  lowest cost.
• Engineers can simplify their designs and the
  process to reduce the cost (www.amsup.com/robust_d
  esign/).

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Results from Robust Design

• Improvement through quality, reliability, and
  durability.
• Manufacturing cost reduction.
• Design cycle time reduction.
• New knowledge
• (www.amsup.com/robust_design/)

9
References

• www.amsup.com/robust_design/
• www.orszulik.free-online.co.uk/page5.html
• http//www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020311a.
  asp