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1 – 10 of over 2000Caner Ekincioğlu and Semra Boran
There can be activities that cannot reduce times by conventional single minute exchange of die (SMED) tools. In this case more advanced tools are needed. The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
There can be activities that cannot reduce times by conventional single minute exchange of die (SMED) tools. In this case more advanced tools are needed. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the fuzzy Taguchi method into the SMED method in order to improve the setup time. The reason for using fuzzy logic is the subjective evaluation of factor’s levels assessment by experts. Subjective assessment contains a certain degree of uncertainty and is vagueness. The fuzzy Taguchi method provides to determining optimal setup time parameters in an activity of SMED. So it is possible to reduce time more than the conventional SMED method.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the SMED method and the fuzzy Taguchi method are used.
Findings
In this study, it has been shown that the setup time is reduced (from 196 to 75 min) and the optimum value can be given at the intermediate value by the fuzzy Taguchi method.
Originality/value
In this limited literature research, the authors have not found a study using the fuzzy Taguchi method in the SMED method.
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Victor Chidiebere Maduekwe and Sunday Ayoola Oke
Key performance indicators (KPIs) of maintenance systems serve as benchmarks to workers and organizations to compare their goals for decision-making purposes. Unfortunately, the…
Abstract
Purpose
Key performance indicators (KPIs) of maintenance systems serve as benchmarks to workers and organizations to compare their goals for decision-making purposes. Unfortunately, the effects of one KPI on the other are least known, restraining decisions on prioritization of KPIs. This article examines and prioritizes the KPIs of the maintenance system in a food processing industry using the novel Taguchi (T) scheme-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method, Taguchi–Pareto (TP) scheme–DEMATEL method and the DEMATEL method.
Design/methodology/approach
The causal association of maintenance process parameters (frequency of failure, downtime, MTTR, MTBF, availability and MTTF) was studied. Besides, the optimized maintenance parameters were infused into the DEMATEL method that translates the optimized values into cause and effect responses and keeping in view the result of analysis. Data collection was done from a food processing plant in Nigeria.
Findings
The results indicated that downtime and availability have the most causal effects on other criteria when DEMATEL and T-DEMATEL methods were respectively applied to the problem. Furthermore, the frequency of failure is mostly affected by other criteria in the key performance indication selection using the two methods. The combined Taguchi scheme and DEMATEL method is appropriate to optimize and establish the causal relationships of factors.
Originality/value
Hardly any studies have reported the joint optimization and causal relationship of maintenance system parameters. However, the current study achieves this goal using the T-DEMATEL, TP-DEMATEL and DEMATEL methods for the first time. The applied methods effectively ease decisions on prioritization of KPIs for enhancement.
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Benjamin Chukudi Oji and Sunday Ayoola Oke
There is growing evidence of a knowledge gap in the association of maintenance with production activities in bottling plants. Indeed, insights into how to jointly optimise these…
Abstract
Purpose
There is growing evidence of a knowledge gap in the association of maintenance with production activities in bottling plants. Indeed, insights into how to jointly optimise these activities are not clear. In this paper, two optimisation models, Taguchi schemes and response surface methodology are proposed.
Design/methodology/approach
Borrowing from the “hard” total quality management elements in optimisation and prioritisation literature, two new models were developed based on factor, level and orthogonal array selection, signal-to-noise ratio, analysis of variance and optimal parametric settings as Taguchi–ABC and Taguchi–Pareto. An additional model of response surface methodology was created with analysis on regression, main effects, residual plots and surface plots.
Findings
The Taguchi S/N ratio table ranked planned maintenance as the highest. The Taguchi–Pareto shows the optimal parametric setting as A4B4C1 (28 h of production, 30.56 shifts and 37 h of planned maintenance). Taguchi ABC reveals that the planned maintenance and number of shifts will influence the outcome of production greatly. The surface regression table reveals that the production hours worked decrease at a value of planned maintenance with a decrease in the number of shifts.
Originality/value
This is the first time that joint optimisation for bottling plant will be approached using Taguchi–ABC and Taguchi–Pareto. It is also the first time that response surface will be applied to optimise a unique platform of the bottling process plant.
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John G. Vlachogiannis and Ranjit K. Roy
The aim of the paper is the fine‐tuning of proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers under model parameter uncertainties (noise).
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is the fine‐tuning of proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers under model parameter uncertainties (noise).
Design/methodology/approach
The fine‐tuning of PID controllers achieved using the Taguchi method following the steps given: selection of the control factors of the PID with their levels; identification of the noise factors that cause undesirable variation on the quality characteristic of PID; design of the matrix experiment and definition of the data analysis procedure; analysis of the data; decision regarding optimum settings of the control parameters and predictions of the performance at optimum levels of control factors; calculation of the expected cost savings under optimum condition; and confirmation of experimental results.
Findings
An example of the proposed method is presented and demonstrates that given certain performance criteria, the Taguchi method can indeed provide sub‐optimal values for fine PID tuning in the presence of model parameter uncertainties (noise). The contribution of each factor to the variation of the mean and the variability of error is also calculated. The expected cost savings for PID under optimum condition are calculated. The confirmation experiments are conducted on a real PID controller.
Research limitations/implications
As a further research it is proposed the contiguous fine‐tuning of PID controllers under a number of a variant controllable models (noise).
Practical implications
The enhancement of PID controllers by Taguchi method is proposed with the form of a hardware mechanism. This mechanism will be incorporated in the PID controller and automatically regulate the PID parameters reducing the noise influence.
Originality/value
Application of Taguchi method in the scientific field of automation control.
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Hefin Rowlands, Jiju Antony and Graeme Knowles
Dr Taguchi is a Japanese engineer and an international quality consultant who has made breakthrough improvements in product and process quality through the use of statistical…
Abstract
Dr Taguchi is a Japanese engineer and an international quality consultant who has made breakthrough improvements in product and process quality through the use of statistical design of experiments (SDOE). The Taguchi method became popular in the West in the 1980s as a means to design robust products and processes. Although many companies and industries have used the method with success, the real benefits of the approach were not realised and fully understood in many cases. This lack of success could be attributed to a number of factors, but mainly because the experiments were treated in isolation and not integrated into a continuous improvement strategy. This paper briefly presents the results of the application of the Taguchi methodology in the UK industry. The paper also illustrates the application of the Taguchi method for optimising the production process of retaining a metal ring in a plastic body in a braking system.
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Wimalin Sukthomya and James D.T. Tannock
The paper describes the methods of manufacturing process optimization, using Taguchi experimental design methods with historical process data, collected during normal production.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper describes the methods of manufacturing process optimization, using Taguchi experimental design methods with historical process data, collected during normal production.
Design/methodology/approach
The objectives are achieved with two separate techniques: the Retrospective Taguchi approach selects the designed experiment's data from a historical database, whilst in the Neural Network (NN) – Taguchi approach, this data is used to train a NN to estimate process response for the experimental settings. A case study illustrates both approaches, using real production data from an aerospace application.
Findings
Detailed results are presented. Both techniques identified the important factor settings to ensure the process was improved. The case study shows that these techniques can be used to gain process understanding and identify significant factors.
Research limitations/implications
The most significant limitation of these techniques relates to process data availability and quality. Current databases were not designed for process improvement, resulting in potential difficulties for the Taguchi experimentation; where available data does not explain all the variability in process outcomes.
Practical implications
Manufacturers may use these techniques to optimise processes, without expensive and time‐consuming experimentation.
Originality/value
The paper describes novel approaches to data acquisition associated with Taguchi experimentation.
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Hung‐Chang Liao and Yan‐Kwang Chen
Looks at the Taguchi method, a traditional approach that seeks to obtain the best combination of factors with the lowest societal cost solution to achieve customer requirements…
Abstract
Looks at the Taguchi method, a traditional approach that seeks to obtain the best combination of factors with the lowest societal cost solution to achieve customer requirements, and also principal component analysis (PCA). States that the Taguchi method can only be used to optimize single response problems and not multi‐response problems and that PCA, although it has been considered to solve multi‐response problems, itself has shortcomings. Proposes a data envelopment analysis ranking (DEAR) approach as an effective means of optimizing the multi‐response problem. Includes a series of steps from the proposed approach which are capable of decreasing uncertainty caused by engineering judgement in the Taguchi method and overcoming the shortcomings of PCA. Concludes that the DEAR approach is more powerful for practical applications.
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The aim of this article is to show how Taguchi methods can be applied to health care.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to show how Taguchi methods can be applied to health care.
Design/methodology/approach
The quadratic loss function is at the heart of Taguchi methods. It is a powerful motivator for a quality strategy and can be used to adequately model the loss to society in health care. It also establishes a relationship between cost and variability. Therefore, it can be integrated with the performance and parameters of the design of medical applications. Signal‐to‐noise ratios give a sense of how close is the performance to the ideal. By maximizing the signal‐to‐noise ratio, quality‐engineering activities can be aimed at identifying near‐optimum levels of factors and making quality equal to zero.
Findings
This article shows that, when the patients' requirements are consistently met, lower losses can provide an impetus to improve patient satisfaction.
Originality/value
The article outlines areas in health care where Taguchi methods can easily be applied.
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Hasan Baş, Fatih Yapıcı and Erhan Ergün
The use of additive manufacturing in many branches of industry is increasing significantly because of its many advantages, such as being able to produce complex parts that cannot…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of additive manufacturing in many branches of industry is increasing significantly because of its many advantages, such as being able to produce complex parts that cannot be produced by classical methods, using fewer materials, easing the supply chain with on-site production, being able to produce with all kinds of materials and producing lighter parts. The binder jetting technique, one of the additive manufacturing methods researched within the scope of this work, is predicted to be the additive manufacturing method that will grow the most in the next decade, according to many economic reports. Although additive manufacturing methods have many advantages, they can be slower than classical manufacturing methods regarding production speed. For this reason, this study aims to increase the manufacturing speed in the binder jetting method.
Design/methodology/approach
Adaptive slicing and variable binder amount algorithm (VBAA) were used to increase manufacturing speed in binder jetting. Taguchi method was used to optimize the layer thickness and saturation ratio in VBAA. According to the Taguchi experimental design, 27 samples were produced in nine different conditions, three replicates each. The width of the samples in their raw form was measured. Afterward, the samples were sintered at 1,500 °C for 2 h. After sintering, surface roughness and density tests were performed. Therefore, the methods used have been proven to be successful. In addition, measurement possibilities with image processing were investigated to make surface roughness measurements more accessible and more economical.
Findings
As a result of the tests, the optimum printing condition was decided to be 180–250 µm for layer thickness and 50% for saturation. A separate test sample was then designed to implement adaptive slicing. This test sample was produced in three pieces: adaptive (180–250 µm), thin layer (180 µm) and thick layer (250 µm) with the determined parameters. The roughness values of the adaptive sliced sample and the thin layer sample were similar and better than the thick layer sample. A similar result was obtained using 12.31% fewer layers in the adaptive sample than in the thin layer sample.
Originality/value
The use of adaptive slicing in binder jetting has become more efficient. In this way, it will increase the use of adaptive slicing in binder jetting. In addition, a cheap and straightforward image processing method has been developed to calculate the surface roughness of the parts.
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Ikuobase Emovon and Rosemary Norman
One of the key elements of a maintenance system is risk analysis because the risk level of an engineering system will determine the maintenance policy required. Failure Mode and…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the key elements of a maintenance system is risk analysis because the risk level of an engineering system will determine the maintenance policy required. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is widely applied in evaluating risk of failure of engineering systems. However, the conventional FMEA used in analyzing risk by most industries has shortcomings such as an inability to utilize imprecise and interval data in prioritizing risk. To overcome these limitations, different variants of FMEA have been reported in the literature. However, these modified approaches are computationally intensive; hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient FMEA-based methodology that is easy to analyze and implement.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed technique combines the Taguchi method with FMEA in order to analyze risk of engineering systems easily and effectively. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated with a case study of the fuel oil system of a marine diesel engine.
Findings
The results of the integrated Taguchi method and FMEA, when compared with well-known techniques, namely, VIKOR and compromise programming, from the literature are very similar. From the comparative analysis, it was evident that the proposed method is a viable option to the more computationally intensive approaches used in the literature.
Originality/value
The approach proposed is novel and simple and can be implemented more easily than approaches from the literature in analyzing risk.
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