Product design by application of Taguchi's robust engineering using computer simulation

This article discusses the application of Taguchi's robust parameter design (RPD) approach in the design of a motor in a large electrical company in India. There used to be specific customer requirements related to temperature rise and low efficiency of the existing model of motor, which the organisation was unable to meet. Taguchi's parameter design approach was successfully applied to derive the optimum design. Orthogonal arrays were used to design the experiments with 13 control factors, each at 3 levels and 2 noise factors. The experimentation was carried out by a computer simulation and the data were analysed using signal-to-noise ratio method. From the analysis of variance along with main effect plots, the optimum factor level combination for the new product was reached. As per the optimum design, prototype was made and tested with respect to the customer requirements and was found to give satisfactory results for all performance characteristics. This approach has given the result in just 10 weeks' time, whereas the traditional design approach used to take 12 to 15 months to arrive at the optimum design values.