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The purpose of this paper is to present some fundamental and critical differences between the two methods of experimental design (i.e. Taguchi and classical design of experiments (DOE)). It also aims to present an application of Taguchi method of experimental design for the development of an optical fiber sensor in a cost effective and timely manner.

The first part of the paper shows the differences between classical DOE and Taguchi methods from a practitioner's perspective. The second part of the paper illustrates a simple framework which provides guidance in the selection of a suitable DOE strategy. The last part is focused on a simple case study demonstrating the power of Taguchi methods of experimental design.

One of the key questions from many quality and production related personnel in organisations are “when to use Taguchi and Classical DOE?”. The purpose of this paper is to make an attempt to address the above question from a practitioner's perspective.

The case study is based on Taguchi method of experimental design. It would be great to see the results of the study if classical DOE is performed to this study.

The paper will be an excellent resource for both research and industrial fraternities who are involved in DOE projects.

Case study and frame work.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact level of parameters affecting wing design at low speeds using Taguchi method.

Using brain storming approach airfoil shape, wing angle of attack and Reynolds number are determined as important wing design parameters. Most important parameters over these parameters are determined using Taguchi method. The lift-to-drag ratio (CL/CD ratio) is chosen as the performance criterion and L8 orthogonal index is chosen as experimental study scheme for this study.

Experimental results are examined using Taguchi method. After making experiments and also analyses, Reynolds number is found as the most important and identifier parameter for aircraft wing design.

Taguchi method makes the experimental design for experimental studies. This method reduces the number of experiments substantially using orthogonal indices while keeping effects of uncontrolled parameters to a minimum. Reduction in number of experiments helps save time and also cost.

In this study, with less number of experiments, the most important parameter for aircraft wing design is determined. Moreover, with less number of experiments, not only is time saved but the design stage is also made faster.

Dr Genichi Taguchi is a Japanese engineer and quality consultant who has promoted the use of statistical design of experiments for improving process/product quality at minimal costs. Taguchi has developed a practical and strategic approach for designing quality into products and processes at the product planning, design and development stages, which is often referred to as off‐line quality control. Although many companies in Europe and the USA have used the Taguchi approach to statistical design of experiments with success, very few applications of this method are realised in countries such as the Czech Republic. This paper reports the applications of experimental design advocated by Taguchi in two manufacturing companies in the Czech Republic. The results of the study are stimulating and will lead to wider applications of this methodology for tackling process and quality‐related problems in the Czech Republican industries in the near future.

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.

Innovative restaurant service designs impart food wellbeing to diners. This research comprehends customer aspirations and concerns in a restaurant-dining experience to develop a service design that enhances the dining experience using the design thinking approach and evaluates its efficiency using the Taguchi method of robust design.

The sequential incidence technique defines diners' needs, which, followed by brainstorming sessions, helped create multiple service designs with important attributes. Prototype narration, as a scenario, acted as the stimulus for evaluators to respond to the WHO-5 wellbeing index scale. Scenario-based Taguchi experiment with nine foodservice attributes in two levels and the wellbeing score as the response variable helped identify levels of critical factors that develop better FWB.

The study identified the best combination of factors and their preferred levels to maximize FWB in a restaurant. Food serving hygiene, followed by information about cuisine specification, and food movement in the restaurant, were important to FWB. The experiment revealed that hygiene perceptions are critical to FWB, and service designs have a significant role in it. Consumers prefer detailed information about the ingredients and recipe of the food they eat; being confident that there will be no unacceptable ingredients added to the food inspires their FWB.

Theoretically, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on design thinking and transformative service research, especially in the food industry.

This paper details a simple method to identify and evaluate important factors that optimize FWB in a restaurant. The proposed methodology will help service designers and technology experts devise settings that consider customer priorities and contribute to their experience.

This study helps to understand the application of design thinking and the Taguchi approach for creating robust service designs that optimize FWB.

Experimental design (ED) is a powerful technique which involves the process of planning and designing an experiment so that appropriate data can be collected and then analysed by statistical methods, resulting in objective and valid conclusions. It is an alternative to the traditional inefficient and unreliable one‐factor‐at‐a‐time approach to experimentation, where an experimenter generally varies one factor or process parameter at a time keeping all other factors at a constant level. This paper presents a step‐by‐step approach to the optimisation of a production process (of retaining a metal ring in a plastic body by a hot forming method) through the utilisation of Taguchi methods of experimental design. The experiment enabled the behaviour of the system to be understood by the engineering team in a short period of time and resulted in significantly improved performance (with the opportunity to design further experiments for possible greater improvements).

The aim of the paper is the fine‐tuning of proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers under model parameter uncertainties (noise).

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.

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.

As a further research it is proposed the contiguous fine‐tuning of PID controllers under a number of a variant controllable models (noise).

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.

Application of Taguchi method in the scientific field of automation control.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the optimum machining parameters using Taguchi technique with principal component analysis (PCA) during end milling of GFRP composites.

In multi-objective optimization, weight criteria of each objective are important for producing better and accurate solutions. This method has been employed for simultaneous minimization of surface roughness, cutting force and delamination factor. Experiments were planned using Taguchi’s orthogonal array with the machining parameters, namely, helix angle of the end mill cutter, spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut were optimized with considerations of multiple response characteristics, including machining force, surface roughness and delamination as the responses. PCA is adopted to find the weight factors involved for all objectives. Finally analysis of variance concept is employed on multi-SN ratio to find out the relative significance of machining parameter in terms of their percentage contribution.

The multi-SN ratio is achieved by the product of weight factor and SN ratio to the performance characteristics in the utility concept. The results show that a combination of machining parameters for the optimized results has helix angle of 35°, machining speed of 4,000 m/min, feed rate of 750 mm/rev and depth of cut of 2.0 mm.

Effect of milling of GFRP composites on delamination factor, surface roughness and machining force with various helix angle solid carbide end mill has not been analysed yet using PCA techniques.

To highlight the application and to compare the effectiveness of the Taguchi and Shainin experimental design processes as applied to aerospace structural components.

This paper applies both the Taguchi and Shainin experimental design techniques to optimizing the design of honeycomb composite joints. The techniques are fully applied, the results analysed and their user friendliness is assessed.

This paper identifies an optimum parameter setting for composite joints gained from applying these experimental design techniques. Significant improvements in joint strength are achieved through identifying a new joint setting.

The adoption of the experimental design techniques outlined in this paper and their application to a real engineering problem will enable a company to apply the techniques and to attain improvements in terms of cost and quality.

The analysis of both the Taguchi and Shainin methodologies and the resulting conclusions as to their effectiveness for industry is the real value of this paper. This paper will be valuable for quality professionals, design engineers and manufacturing specialists in a wide range of industries.

Glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) contain two phases of materials with drastically distinguished mechanical and thermal properties, which brings in complicated interactions between the matrix and the reinforcement during machining. Surface quality and dimensional precision will greatly affect parts during their useful life especially in cases where the components will be in contact with other elements or materials during their useful life. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of the Taguchi method with fuzzy logic to optimise the machining parameters for machining of GFRP composites with multiple characteristics.

The machining tests were performed on a CNC milling machine using solid carbide (K10) End mill cutting tool with three different helix angles. Experiments were planned using Taguchi’s orthogonal array with the cutting conditions prefixed.

The machining parameters, namely, helix angle of the end mill cutter, spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, and work piece fibre orientation (specially applied to the GFRP composites) were optimised with considerations of multiple response characteristics, including machining force, material removal rate, and delamination. The results from confirmation runs indicated that the determined optimal combination of machining parameters improved the performance of the machining process.

Multi-response optimisation of machinability behaviour of GFRP composites using fuzzy logic has not been attempted previously.