Displaying the alias structure for a Taguchi design

If you have a 2-level L4, L8, L16, or L32 design, you can use Stat > DOE > Factorial to display the alias structure. For example, you create an L8 Taguchi design with 3 2-level factors. You enter the factors in C1, C2, and C3, and the responses in C4 and C5. To display the alias structure: 1. Choose Stat > DOE > Factorial > Define Custom Factorial Design. 2. In Factors, enter C1 C2 C3. 3. Click Low/High. Click OK in each dialog box. 5. Choose Stat > DOE > Analyze Factorial Design. 6. In Responses, enter C4. Click OK. Minitab displays the alias structure at the bottom of the Session window. You can disregard the other output. To analyze the design, you must first define it as a Taguchi design. 1. Choose Stat > DOE > Taguchi > Define Custom Taguchi Design. 2. In Factors, enter C1-C3. Enter a signal factor if applicable. Click OK. Note: You can change the alias structure when creating a Taguchi design by choosing Stat > DOE > Taguchi > Create Taguchi Design > Factors, and entering the columns of the array to which you want to assign the factors.

Calculations Response Table for Standard Deviations, static Taguchi design

The Response Table contains a row for the average standard deviation for each factor level, Delta, and Rank. The table contains a column for each factor. Delta is the difference between the maximum and minimum average standard deviations for the factor. The Rank is the rank of each Delta, where Rank 1 is the largest Delta. For example, suppose the inner array has 2 factors (A and B), stored in c1 and c2, respectively, and the outer array has two responses, stored in c3 and c4. Part 1 1. Choose Calc > Row Statistics. 2. Choose Standard deviation. 3. In Input variables, enter c3 c4.

4. In Store result in, enter c6. 5. Click OK. Note that you can also get these standard deviations by choosing Stat > DOE > Taguchi > Analyze Taguchi Design > Storage, checking Standard deviations, and clicking OK twice. Part 2 1. Choose Stat > Basic Statistics > Store Descriptive Statistics. 2. In Variables, enter c6. 3. In By variables, enter c1. 4. Click Statistics. 5. Check Mean. 6. Click OK twice. The last column in the worksheet (named Mean1 if there was not already a column with this name before performing these steps) contains the standard deviations that are displayed in the Response Table for factor A. Repeat Part 2, entering c2 in step 3 to get the standard deviations for factor B. To see the calculations for the Response Table for Signal to Noise Ratios for a static Taguchi design with no replicates using the default of Nominal is best (10*Log(Ybar**2/s**2)), please see Knowledgebase ID 937.
Calculations for Response Table for Signal to Noise Ratios, static Taguchi design

Solution The Response Table contains a row for the average signal to noise ratio for each factor level, Delta, and Rank. The table contains a column for each factor. Delta is the difference between the maximum and minimum average signal to noise ratios for the factor. The Rank is the rank of each Delta, where Rank 1 is the largest Delta. For example, suppose the inner array has 2 factors (A and B), stored in c1 and c2, respectively, and the outer array has two responses, stored in c3 and c4. Part 1 1. Choose Calc > Row Statistics. 2. Choose Mean. 3. In Input variables, enter c3 c4. 4. In Store result in, enter c6. 5. Click OK. Part 2 1. Choose Calc > Row Statistics. 2. Choose Standard deviation.

3. In Input variables, enter c3 c4. 4. In Store result in, enter c7. 5. Click OK. Part 3 1. Choose Calc > Calculator. 2. In Store result in variable, enter c8. 3. In Expression, enter: 10 * LOGT(C6**2 / C7**2) 4. Click OK. Note that you can also get these signal to noise ratios by choosing Stat > DOE > Taguchi > Analyze Taguchi Design > Storage, checking Signal to Noise ratios, and clicking OK twice. Part 4 1. Choose Stat > Basic Statistics > Store Descriptive Statistics. 2. In Variables, enter c8. 3. In By variables, enter c1. 4. Click Statistics. 5. Check Mean. 6. Click OK twice. The last column in the worksheet (named Mean1 if there was not already a column with this name before performing these steps) contains the signal to noise ratios that are displayed in the Response Table for factor A. Repeat Part 4, entering c2 in step 3 to get the signal to noise ratios for factor B. To see the calculations for the Response Table for Standard Deviations for a static Taguchi design with no replicates, please see Knowledgebase ID 936.

Can I analyze multiple response variables simultaneously with a Taguchi design? You should analyze each response variable separately with Taguchi designs. Although Taguchi analysis accepts multiple response columns, these responses should be the same variable measured under different noise factor conditions.

How does Minitab choose the default Taguchi design?

For 2-level designs based on L8 (3 or 4 factors), L16 (3-8 factors), and L32 (3-16 factors) arrays, Minitab will choose a full factorial design if possible. If a full factorial design is not possible, then Minitab will choose a Resolution IV design. For all other designs, the default designs in Minitab are based on the catalog of designs by Taguchi and Konishi (1987), cited below. Minitab takes a straightforward approach in determining the default columns that are used in any of the various orthogonal designs. Say you are creating a Taguchi design with k factors. Minitab simply takes the first k of columns of the orthogonal array. Reference: G. Taguchi and S. Konishi (1987). Taguchi Methods: Orthogonal Arrays and Linear Graphs. American Supplier Institute, Inc.

References for Taguchi methods

G.S. Peace (1993). Taguchi Methods: A Hands-On Approach To Quality Engineering. AddisonWesley. W. Y. Fowlkes and C.M. Creveling (1995). Engineering Methods for Robust Product Design. Addison-Wesley. J.H. Lochner and J.E. Matar (1990). Designing for Quality. ASQC Quality Press. S.H. Park (1996). Robust Design and Analysis for Quality Engineering. Chapman & Hall. M.S. Phadke (1989). Quality Engineering Using Robust Design. Prentice-Hall. G. Taguchi and S. Konishi (1987). Orthogonal Arrays and Linear Graphs. ASI Press.
How to tell if a design is orthogonal

To determine whether your GLM or DOE design is orthogonal, do the following: Note: When analyzing factorial designs, if the design is displayed in uncoded units in the worksheet, first choose Stat > DOE > Display Design, select Coded units, and click OK. 1. Choose Stat >ANOVA > General Linear Model or Stat > DOE > Factorial > Analyze Factorial Design and fill out the dialog box as usual. Note: You can also do this for Response Surface, Taguchi, and Mixture designs. To store a design matrix in Taguchi, you must be fitting a linear model. 2. Click Storage.

3. Check Design matrix. Click OK in each dialog box. 4. Sum the degrees of freedom for all terms in the model, except Error. The degrees of freedom are in the DF column of the ANOVA table in the Session window output. 5. Choose Data > Copy > Matrix to Columns. 6. In Copy from matrix, enter XMAT1. 7. Under Store Copied Data, in In current worksheet, in columns, enter a range of empty columns large enough to include a column for every degree of freedom in the model plus one for the intercept. (For example, if you have 7 degrees of freedom in your model, you will need 8 columns total and could enter C11-C18.) Click OK. 8. Choose Stat > Basic Statistics > Correlation. 9. In Variables, enter the range of columns from step 7. 10. Uncheck Display p-values. Click OK. 11. In the matrix displayed in the Session window, look for any non-zero terms. A positive or negative value indicates that the two columns and their associated terms are not orthogonal. Note: When analyzing a factorial design, the design matrix will store the terms in uncoded units if the worksheet is in uncoded units. Stat > DOE > Factorial > Analyze Factorial Design will perform the analysis in coded units. When analyzing a response surface design, the design matrix will store the terms in coded or uncoded units depending on the units in which you choose to analyze the data.

What are the StdOrder and RunOrder columns in my DOE worksheet?

When you create or define a design using one of the Create Design or Define Custom Design procedures, Minitab creates a design object that stores the appropriate design information in the worksheet. Minitab needs this stored information to analyze and plot data properly. The following columns are part of the design object:

StdOrder RunOrder CenterPt (two-level factorial designs) or PtType (general full factorial, Plackett-Burman, response surface, and mixture designs) Blocks Factor or component columns

StdOrder (Standard order) is the order of the runs if the experiment was done in Yates' order. This is useful to compare the design to designs found in textbooks or other software packages. To display the design in standard order, choose Stat > DOE > Display Design. Choose Standard order for design and click OK. RunOrder (Run order) is the order of the runs if the experiment was done in random order. The run order is used if you create a "Residuals versus order" graph. To display the design in run order, choose Stat > DOE > Display Design. Choose Run order for design and click OK. To randomize or re-randomize the design, choose Stat > DOE > Modify Design. Choose Randomize design. Choose the desired options.

Why there is no interaction table for the L12 (2**11) Taguchi design

"The L12 (2**11) is a specially designed array, in that interactions are distributed more or less uniformly to all columns. Note that there is no linear graph for this array. It should not be used to analyze interactions. The advantage of this design is its capability to investigate 11 main effects, making it a highly recommended array." Quoted from: G. Taguchi and S. Konishi (1987). Orthogonal Arrays and Linear Graphs. ASI Press.

Why the response column(s) don't appear in the dialog box when analyzing a DOE

If you are attempting to analyze a design in the Factorial, Response Surface, Mixture, or Taguchi menu and your response column(s) are not appearing in the dialog box, there are two possible reasons:

The response column(s) are formatted as text. If you have numeric data in a column, but the column number appears with a -T, then the column is formatted as text. For instructions on how to change the column formatting to numeric, see Knowledgebase ID 682. The length of the response column(s) differ from the length of the factor columns. To easily view the count in each column, click on the Show Info icon.

Note: If you are analyzing a Taguchi design and there are no columns with the same length as the factor columns, you will not be able to access the Analyze Taguchi Design dialog box.