Off-Line Quality Control, Parameter Design, and the Taguchi Method

Abstract

Off-line quality control methods are quality and cost control activities conducted at the product and process design stages to improve product manufacturability and reliability, and to reduce product development and lifetime costs. Parameter design is an off-line quality control method. At the product design stage the goal of parameter design is to identify settings of product design characteristics that make the product's performance less sensitive to the effects of environmental variables, deterioration, and manufacturing variations. Because parameter design reduces performance variation by reducing the influence of the sources of variation rather than by controlling them, it is a very cost-effective technique for improving product quality. This paper introduces the concepts of off-line quality control and parameter design and then discusses the Taguchi Method for conducting parameter design experiments.

• Design of Experiments
• Off-line Quality Control
• Orthogonal Arrays
• Parameter Design
• Performance Variation
• Product Design
• Quality Engineering
• Reliability
• Taguchi Method

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raghu N. Kackar

Dr. Kackar is a Member of the Distinguished Technical Staff in the Quality Assurance Center. He is a Member of ASQC.