Abstract
While statistically designed experiments have been employed extensively to improve product or process quality, they have been used infrequently for improving reliability. In this paper, we present a case study which used an experiment to improve the reliability (or lifetime) of fluorescent lamps. The effect of three factors from among many potentially important manufacturing factors was investigated using a fractional factorial design. For fluorescent lamps, failures occur when their luminosity or light intensity falls below a certain level. An interesting feature of this experiment is the periodic monitoring of the luminosity. The paper demonstrates how the luminosity's degradation over time provides a practical way to improve fluorescent lamps which are already highly reliable. Recommendations based on the experiment's results suggest that nearly a 70% improvement can be realized.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sheng-Tsaing Tseng
Dr. Tseng is a Professor in the Institute of Statistics. He is a Member of ASQC.
Michael Hamada
Dr. Hamada is a Research Scientist. He is a Member of ASQC.
Chih-Hua Chiao
Dr. Chiao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Mathematics.