Quality Engineering

Quality
• Defined in different terms by different
quality Gurus: Deming, Juran, Crosby,
Feigenbaum
• Western philosophers explained quality in
terms of presence of certain characteristics
• Taguchi defines quality in terms of loss due
to absence of quality
• This thinking influenced by Zen philosophy
 Quality
• Quality is measured in terms of total loss to
society due to functional variation and
harmful side effects
• When the product performance meets the
target performance, the loss is zero
• Any deviation from the target incurs loss
• Greater the deviation, greater the loss
• Explained by Taguchi’s Loss Function
 Quality Loss Function
• The traditional (Western) model for quality losses
– No losses when the product is within the specification limits

Cost
Scrap Cost

LSL Target USL

• The Taguchi loss function

– Quality loss is zero only if the product achieves target specification
 Fraction Defective Fallacy
1. All products within specifications equally good,
2. All products beyond specifications equally bad
A study found U.S. consumers preferred Sony TVs made in
Japan to those made in the U.S. Both factories used the same
designs & specifications. The difference in quality goals
made the difference in consumer preferences.
Sony-Japan
Freq.
(Target-oriented)

Sony-US
(Conformance-
X oriented)
LSL Target USL
 Quality Loss Function
High Loss
Unacceptable

Poor
Loss

Fair

Good

Best
Low Loss
Target-oriented quality
yields more product in
the "best" category
Frequency

Conformance-oriented
quality keeps products
within 3 standard
deviations

Lower Target Upper

Distribution of Specifications for Products Produced
 Quality Loss Function
• Loss L(y) = k*(y-m)2
• When y=m, Loss = 0
• When functional limits are m±Δ0, and
• Loss at y±Δ0 = A0, then
• k = A0 /Δ02
Quality Loss Function Example 1
The repair cost for an engine shaft is Rs.
100. The shaft diameter is required to be 10
±1 mm. On average the produced shafts
deviates 0.5 mm from target. Determine the
mean quality loss per shaft using the
Taguchi QLF.
Solution: k = 100/(1)2=100,
L(y) = 100*(0.5)2 = Rs. 25
Quality Loss Function Example 2
The specifications for the diameter of a gear
are 25.00 ± 0.25 mm. If the diameter is out
of specification, the gear must be scrapped
at a cost of Rs. 4.0/ unit. What is the unit
loss?
Solution: k = 4/(0.25)2=64,
L(y) = 64*(0.25)2 = Rs. 4
Different Quality Loss Functions
• Smaller-the-better: L(y) = ky2
• Larger-the-better: L(y) = k/y2
• Asymmetric loss function: For example,
L(y) = k1*(y-m)2 , when y > m, and
= k2*(y-m)2 , when y ≤ m
 Causes of Variation - Noise Factors
Product variation Process variation
ii. External: Variation ii. External: Environment
in the environment in in which process is
which the product is carried out
used iii. Non-uniformity of the
iii. Unit-to-unit: process: Spatial
Variation due to variation in the output
process iv. Process drift:
iv. Deterioration: Wear Temporal variation in
and tear due to usage the output
 Average Quality Loss
• Average quality loss
Q = k [(μ-m)2+σ2]
• Two components
– deviation from target, and
– variance around mean
• Adjusting mean of the process is easy,
but variation reduction is difficult
 Variation Reduction
• Three approaches to variation
reduction
ii. Screening out bad product
iii. Discovering and eliminating the
cause of malfunction (tolerance
tightening)
iv. Applying robust design methods
(finding and exploring nonlinearity)
 Goal of Robust Design
• To exploit the nonlinearity of the
relationships among the parameters, the
noise factors and the quality characteristics
• To find a combination of parameter values
that result into the smallest variation of the
quality characteristic around the target
value under nominal noise conditions
Classification of Parameters
Noise
z
factors

M y
Product / Process
Signal Response
factor

x Control
factors
 Engineering Design Problem
i. Concept design
ii. Parameter design
iii. Tolerance design

• Quality Engineering includes (ii) and (iii)

 Stage of Ability to reduce effect of
Quality control
product External Unit-to-
activity Drift
realization var. unit var.
Concept design Y Y Y
Product design Parameter design Y Y Y
Tolerance design Y Y Y
Concept design N Y N
Process design Parameter design N Y N
Tolerance design N Y N
Detection/ correction N Y N
Manufacturing Feed-forward control N Y N
Screening N Y N
Usage Warranty / Repair N N N
 Assignment No. 1
• Following measurements were taken on two
batches of a machined component for which
the tolerance limits were 25.00 ± 0.25 mm.
The cost of scrapping a nonconforming unit
is Rs.4. Construct a histogram, estimate loss
per unit part for each size and calculate total
loss and average loss for the two batches.
Interpret the results.
 Batch 1
25.01 24.89 24.98 25.00 24.97
25.04 24.97 24.98 25.01 25.02
25.04 25.01 24.85 25.00 24.97
24.92 25.03 24.98 24.92 25.05
24.90 25.03 25.03 25.02 24.98
24.91 25.01 24.96 25.01 25.10
24.95 24.96 25.02 24.98 24.99
25.10 24.95 25.04 25.06 25.03
24.96 25.03 25.11 25.00 25.04
25.02 25.12 25.01 25.07 25.02
 Batch 2
25.09 24.95 24.91 25.02 24.93
25.06 24.87 25.00 25.19 25.18
24.84 25.18 25.16 25.05 25.04
24.99 25.07 24.88 25.01 24.99
24.92 25.01 25.00 24.95 25.04
25.15 25.12 25.11 25.14 25.29
24.72 24.74 24.81 24.90 25.12
24.96 24.99 25.17 25.14 25.11
25.18 24.92 25.09 24.89 24.91
25.18 25.09 25.23 24.72 25.11