Design of Experiments and Quality Assurance

Why would a project quality team design an experiment? Design of experiments is an analytical technique for project quality assurance that helps project managers determine which variables have the most effect on an outcome. It can help you determine the capability of a material, process, or product.

Your project can be improved with experiments that test new ideas and possibilities. Designed experiments are helpful in solving chronic quality problems. Properly designed experiments can:

• reduce rework
• improve productivity
• increase customer satisfaction
• prevent problems
• reduce the need for extra inspections.

Companies strive for efficiency in most areas. After all, companies that have efficient processes while still maintaining a high level of quality are usually the companies that are best-in-their-class.

Design of experiments is a more efficient and less disruptive experimentation process than most trial method experiments. It requires extra thought and planning. However, it is worth the time and effort put into it.

This technique for quality assurance is beneficial for many company types and is most often used for projects that produce a product. Companies and their project managers usually choose to use this technique for the following reasons.

• It requires smaller sample sizes to receive the same accuracy of results.
• It determines interactions between process variables.
• It tests more variables at one time, making this process more efficient.

Design of experiments is a quality assurance technique that verifies how materials, products, or processes affect your project. It is useful for solving chronic quality problems because it tests new ideas and possibilities.

Quality Planning Techniques: Design of Experiments

How do you determine the way a material, product, or process affects your project? You can use a quality planning technique called design of experiments. This analytical technique can help you uncover which variables have the most influence on an outcome, and verify the capability of materials, products, and processes.

Most organizations want to improve their products and services. Designing experiments that verify these improvements is worth the time and effort put into them, since they are helpful in solving chronic quality problems. Properly designed experiments can help you:

• eliminate re-work
• achieve higher productivity
• improve customer satisfaction
• prevent problems
• reduce extra inspections.

Design of experiments is more efficient and less disruptive than a trial method experiment. It also requires extra thought and planning, as a mistake during any part of the experiment can invalidate the entire analysis.

The objective of a designed experiment is to study specific outcomes by analyzing the impact of several variables at one time. Testing more variables at one time makes this process more efficient.

Whether you are searching for the root cause of a quality problem or you want to improve quality results, design of experiments is a beneficial technique for quality planning. In addition to the benefits listed above, it provides the following two important benefits.

• Smaller sample sizes. This technique requires smaller sample sizes to receive the same accuracy of results.
• Interaction between variables. It determines interactions between process variables. Certain combinations of variables can have a greater impact on the outcome than any one variable on its own.

Design of experiments is a technique that is most often applied to the product of a project. For example, pharmaceutical companies often perform designed experiments to test the composition of their drugs. If studying the XYZ drug, a designed experiment would have a matrix of experiments that tests X, Y, and Z in different amounts at the same time. The experiment would examine X1Y1Z1, X2Y1Z2, X1Y2Z3, and other such combinations. This experiment tests multiple variables at the same time.

In summary, design of experiments verifies how a material, product, or process is affecting your project. This quality planning technique is usually applied to projects that produce a product.