What is the Taguchi Method of Quality Control?

The Taguchi method, also referred to as robust design method or off-line quality control, refers to a quality product design or engineering technique comprised of statistical control methods usd to inform design, paramaters, and tolerances.

The Taguchi method applied statistical methods to decrease the variability of a product. There are two basic ideas that you can use to describe this methodology:

• When measuring the quality, a specified target value deviation should be used.
• To ensure quality, product qualities should be built in through appropriate design, and not through inspection and rework.

The Taguchi methods were developed by Japanese research, Dr. Genichi Taguchi. The Taguchi method was incorporated by several companies both in Japan and in the United States. Some of the companies with big names that embraced the Taguchi method include the following:

• Boeing
• Ford
• Toyota
• Xerox

It was first developed to help improve the the quality of goods manufacturing. However, it was later extended to biotechnology, engineering, advertising as well as marketing.

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Phases of the Taguchi Method of Quality Control

Taguchi Method of Quality Control Phases There are three phases that were proposed by Taguchi:

• System design - In this phase, engineer designers apply their practical skills together with scientific and engineering methods to come up with a viable, functional design. The system, in this case, may be the creation of anew product or an improvement or modification to an existing design.
• Parameter design - In this phase, the designer determines the optimal settings or parameters for the product or process. This allows allows for minimizing the cost of manufacturing and performance variation.
• Tolerance design - Tolerance design means tightening tolerances for a product or a process so that quality and performance/productivity are enhanced. 

Generally, there are limited Taguchi experimental designs which have made it easy for them to choose and use in the environment in which they manufacture their products.