DESIGNING THE OPTIMUM CONFIGURATIONS OF CIRCULAR AND SPHERICAL PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS FOR MULTIPLE QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS

1. Introduction The problem of determining an optimal tolerance is equivalent to the problem of determining optimal specification limits, since the term tolerance refers to the distance between its lower and upper specification limits. Functional performance and economic considerations are the two primary factors affecting the design of tolerances. A tighttolerance usually implies high manufacturing cost due to additional manufacturing operations, slow processing rates, additional care on part…

Designing the optimum configurations of circular and spherical product specifications for multiple quality characteristics

As an integral part of tolerance design in the context of design for six sigma, determining optimal product specifications has become the focus of increased activity, as manufacturing industries strive to increase productivity and improve the quality of their products. Although a number of research papers have been reported in the research community, there is room for improvement. Most existing research papers consider determining optimal specification limits for a single quality characteristic. In this paper, we develop the modeling and optimization procedures for optimum circular and spherical configurations by considering multiple quality characteristics. The concepts of multivariate quality loss function and truncated distribution are incorporated. This has never been adequately addressed, nor has been appropriately applied in industry. A numerical example is shown and comparison studies are made.