Taguchi Philosophy of Engineering Quality

Abstract

Most technology development engineers use traditional reliability engineering methods to calibrate the objective functions of their new systems to meet various marketing requirements. Quality is related to products and services to customer satisfaction. Cost reduction and quality improvement is vital to business. Therefore it is no surprise that both consumers and management are so obsessed with the term quality that a separate branch of quality engineering has been developed. Quite a few glorified terminologies have cropped up such as total quality management (TQM), Quality Function Development (QFD), ISO9000, Continuous quality improvement or KAIZEN, and more popularly six sigma design. These are management-oriented and rather incomprehensible to an average engineer. In contrast, Taguchi methods are easier to comprehend and adopt. They are also based on some common sense ideas. The management's interest was evoked owing to the claimed economic consequences of Taguchi methods of reduced cost with improved quality and consequent consumer satisfaction.