Quality Guru Analysis

GENICHI TAGUCHI
APPAREL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Submitted by:-
Kumar Rahul
Rasika Iyer
Samapriya Banerjee
Introduction
Taguchi was born in 1924 in Takamachi, Japan, a city famous for the kimono industry, so it was
only natural for him to study textile engineering as he was expected to assume responsibility of
the family kimono business. But in 1942, Taguchi's draft notice came and with it came an
interest in statistics. Under the guidance of Prof. Masuyama, at the time regarded by many as
the best statistician, Taguchi's statistics skills were nurtured and honed.
In 1950, he joined the Electrical Communications Laboratory (ECL) of the Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone Corporation just as statistical quality control was beginning to become popular in
Japan.
Under the influence of W. Edwards Deming and the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers.
ECL was engaged in a rivalry with Bell Labs to develop cross bar and telephone switching
systems, and Taguchi spent his twelve years there in developing methods for enhancing quality
and reliability. Even at this point, he was beginning to consult widely in Japanese industry, with
Toyota being an early adopter of his ideas.
During the 1950s, he collaborated widely and in 1954-1955 was visiting professor at the Indian
Statistical Institute, where he worked with C. R. Rao, Ronald Fisher and Walter A.
Shewhart.While working at the SQC Unit of ISI, he was introduced to the orthogonal arrays
invented by C. R. Rao - a topic which was to be instrumental in enabling him to develop the
foundation blocks of what is now known as Taguchi methods.
His contributions
The Loss Function - Taguchi devised an equation to quantify the decline of a
customer's perceived value of a product as its quality declines. Essentially, it tells
managers how much revenue they are losing because of variability in their production
process. It is a powerful tool for projecting the benefits of a quality improvement
program. Taguchi was the first person to equate quality with cost.
"Loss" in value progressively increases as variation increases from the intended
condition. This was considered a breakthrough in describing quality, and helped fuel the
continuous improvement movement that since has become known as lean
manufacturing.
Orthogonal Arrays and Linear Graphs - When evaluating a production process
analysis will undoubtedly identify outside factors or noise which cause deviations from
the mean. Isolating these factors to determine their individual effects can be a very
costly and time consuming process. Taguchi devised a way to use orthogonal arrays to
isolate these noise factors from all others in a cost effective manner.
Robustness - Some noise factors can be identified, isolated and even eliminated but
others cannot. For instance it is too difficult to predict and prepare for any possible
weather condition. Taguchi therefore referred to the ability of a process or product to
work as intended regardless of uncontrollable outside influences as robustness. He was
pivotal in many companies' development of products and processes which perform
uniformly regardless of uncontrollable forces; an obviously beneficial service.
Success Stories
AT&T Bell Laboratories
(Computer Response-Time Optimization Using Orthogonal Array Experiments)
The objective was to reduce a computer system's response time under a specified range
of load and environmental conditions. This was achieved by simultaneously studying a
large number of system parameters, as opposed to studying one parameter at a time.
The resulting optimum system configuration gave a 60% reduction in mean response
time.
Ford Motor Company
(Fuel Pump Flow)
The variability range in fuel pump flow was reduced by 65%. Development of a new fuel
pump with severe requirements was completed eight months prior to plan as a result of
this study.
Xerox
(Copy machine paper arrival time)
Xerox reduced the variability in arrival time and paper orientation by 66%. Xerox is
probably the most advanced user of Taguchi Methods in the U.S. They started
implementation of Robust Design in 1982, and today the Robust Design approach is fully
integrated into their product development process.
Nissan Motor
(Brake Pad Study)
Using dynamic characteristics, Nissan improved the efficiency of the energy
transformation to the brake pad. Overall weight of the brake system was reduced and
squeal rate was reduced to 4% of the original condition. Nissan Technical Center
conducts 70 projects annually, all using dynamic characteristics.
CDI/3M Healthcare
(Oxygen Sensor Variability Reduction)
The variability of measured value from an oxygen sensor used for open heart surgery
was reduced by 70%. In addition (using a double-signal approach), a robust function was
developed to compensate for changes in blood temperature.


Awards and Recognition
Dr. Taguchi has been awarded the coveted Deming Prize on three separate occasions for
his contributions to the field of Quality Engineering.
In 1986, he received the Willard F. Rockwell Medal for combining engineering and
statistical methods to achieve rapid improvements in cost and quality by optimizing
product design and manufacturing processes.
He received the Blue Ribbon Award from the Emperor of Japan in 1990 for his
contribution to industry.
References
http://www.amsup.com/
Wadsworth, Harrison M. (1997). Handbook of statistical
methods for engineers and scientists (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill Professional.
http://www.asq.org/
www.qualitygurus.com
Taguchi, Genichi (June 1995). "Quality engineering
(Taguchi methods) for the development of electronic
circuit technology



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