Earphone terminal quality improvement through sequential experimental design

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to improve the key quality performance of the terminal of earphone in an electronic company.

Design/methodology/approach

Sequential experimental designs are employed. Significant input variables are found through a full factorial design. Then a response surface model is constructed considering curvature in the linear model.

Findings

Optimized key input variables’ parameters are found using the response surface model. The key quality performance, coplanarity of the terminal of earphone has been improved.

Research limitations/implications

Instead of running a full factorial design in the first stage, a fractional factorial may be used to reduce experimental runs.

Practical implications

The paper presents a good solution for reducing defects caused by large coplanarity of a kind of earphone terminal.

Originality/value

The methodology used in this case can be easily extended to similar cases.

Citation

He, Z., Zhang, X.-t., Xie, G.-q. and Zhang, M. (2015), "Earphone terminal quality improvement through sequential experimental design", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 32 No. 7, pp. 693-702. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-11-2013-0179