The fundamental principles of robust design are developed. The history of the robust design engineering methodology is presented. The concepts of the loss function, concept selection, parameter design, and tolerance design will be covered. Metrics and analysis techniques are developed to optimize the performance of product or process components in spite of their design, manufacturing, or customer use environments. Specific attention will be paid to a number of case studies to reinforce the student’s conceptualization of the methods and their focus on engineering of optimized products and processes. Students may not take and receive credit for this course if they have already taken MCET-620.

In this advanced course students explore methods, such as Taguchi arrays, that support the optimization and verification phases of the Design for Six Sigma development process. Topics covered include the experimental design process, additivity, static and dynamic signal-to-noise ratios, analysis of means, and ANOVA. The role of robust design methods in reducing variability for both products and processes and in integrating systems is emphasized. Students may not take and receive credit for this course if they have already taken MCET-582.