Taguchi's Robust Design and Its Alternatives: A Review

Abstract

The foundation of modern quality control and assurance were built in the 1920s. In 1924, a physicist, Walter Shewhart, created simple graphical tool for studying the performance of the process, the control charts. Shewhart, Harold Dodge and Harry Romig studied how to apply statistical methods to manufacturing process. This continued until 1980, when the television documentary, ’if Japan can why can’t we ’focused attention on the growing problem of American industrial competitiveness. By Chance, another awakening of sorts also happened in 1980. Genichi Taguchi presented a unique technology for quality improvement, which is known as off line quality control. The on line quality control can only check whether the process is under statistical control or not. This is basically a passive and defensive approach. On the other hand, a relatively more sophisticated method introduced by Taguchi used in offline quality control recently recognized by American industries is a very effective tool for quality improvement. Among these, a technique called ’Robust Parameter Design’ has aroused considerable interest and attention among quality professionals and statisticians world wide.