Title: Tolerance synthesis based on Taguchi philosophy

Authors: B. Gopalakrishnan, M. Jaraiedi, W.H. Iskander, A. Ahmad

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA

Abstract: Design for manufacturing is an important tool for improving production systems. Continuous quality improvement and cost reduction are necessary for survival in today|s competitive economy. Quality loss can be reduced by optimising the allocation of dimensional tolerances to individual components. The conventional method of computing the cost of quality is based on the number of parts rejected and reworked. But, this method could mislead a manufacturer in producing parts without satisfying the dimensional tolerance. This paper focuses on a method that minimises the overall quality loss by optimising the deviations from the nominal dimensions based on Taguchi|s loss function. A mathematical model has been developed which gives an insight as to how much tolerance must be allowed to manufacture parts, such that the other parameters like product quality, productivity and manufacturing cost are also optimised. Later the model has been validated with an example to calculate the loss.

Keywords: Taguchi methods; Taguchi|s loss function; design for manufacturing; nominal dimensions; productivity; quality control; dimensional tolerances; tolerance synthesis; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2007.012465

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2007 Vol.2 No.3, pp.311 - 326

Published online: 16 Feb 2007 *

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