EML 4550: Engineering Design Methods

Tolerance Design

From Tolerance Design: A Handbook for developing optimal specifications, by

C.M. Creveling, Addison-Wesley, Chapter 11
Also
Engineering Design, by G.E. Dieter Chapter 12

EML4550 2007

Definitions
Tolerance
Geometric tolerance - range for a particular dimension
General tolerance - acceptable range for a design variable
(dimension, roughness, viscosity, refractive index, etc.)

Most techniques developed for tolerance design

apply to dimensions, but many can be generalized to
any design tolerance problem
Tolerance design appeared with the Industrial
Revolution as the need for interchangeability arose.

EML4550 -- 2007

Definitions
Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T)
Tolerance design geared towards variance
reduction as the key to repeatable, low-cost
manufacturing
Converging views from East and West
Taguchi method

Application of sound statistical and mathematical

methods in the design process to reduce variance
(design for quality)

EML4550 -- 2007

Tolerance Design: Process Flow Diagram

Customer Tolerances

Product Output
Response Tolerance

System and
Assembly Tolerances

Component Part
Tolerances

Manufacturing Process
Parameter Tolerances
EML4550 -- 2007

Customer Costs & Losses

Product Output Response

Process Capabilities

System and Assembly

Process Capabilities

Component Part
Process Capability

Manufacturing Process
Capabilities

Tolerances
Tolerances need to be defined because we live in a
probabilistic world and 100% reproducibility in
manufacturing is not physically possible
Tolerances are defined in a standard: ANSI Y14-5M1982 (R1988) (American National Standards
Institute-ANSI)
The total amount by which a given dimension may
vary, or the difference between the limits

EML4550 -- 2007

Different Approaches to Tolerancing

Traditional methods in tolerance design
Semi-empirical
Experience
Manufacturing process capabilities

Computer-aided tolerance design

Plug-in packages for CAD software (propagation of tolerance
techniques error analysis)

Statistical methods
Monte Carlo simulation

Sensitivity analysis
Cost-based tolerance design

Modern methods in tolerance design

Taguchi approach

EML4550 -- 2007

Classical Tolerance Design Process

Select Process
Change Process

Collect Statistical Data

Under
Control?

Y
Y

Process
Capable?

Work on process

Management Decision

Change Specs

Live with it
Test 100%
Stop Production

EML4550 -- 2007

Classical Tolerance Design Process (Contd)

Specs
Being Met?

Recenter Process

Y
Continue Gathering Statistics

For continued process improvement,

conduct designed and controlled
experiments to further reduce variability

EML4550 -- 2007

Tolerances and Quality Engineering

Taguchi:
Tolerances are economically established operating
windows of functional variability for optimized
control factor set points to limit customer loss

More general, not just dimensions

Economically-driven (trade off)
Control factors that are pre-defined (not any variable)
Limit, but not eliminate, customer losses

EML4550 -- 2007

Taguchi Approach
Concept of off-line QC
Incorporate QC and tolerancing before releasing the design
to production
Iterative process as a final step prior to drawing release

On-line QC
Traditional approach of in-plant QC, fix it after the fact or
scrap
Use on-line QC to maintain or improve quality of the
designed product (little or no improvement needed if offline QC was properly implemented)

EML4550 -- 2007

The three phases in Tolerance Analysis

Basically the standard approach for the design
process
Concept design: selection of technology platform, metrics to
assess relative merits, concept robustness (safety,
environment, commercial, reliability, etc.)
Parameter design: optimization of concept, parameters to
reduce sensitivity to noise (uncontrollable parameters)
Tolerance design: Balancing of customer loss function with
production cost, ability to determine and limit the variability
around the target set points (as defined in parameter
design).

EML4550 -- 2007

Taguchis Approach to Tolerancing

Input from the voice of the customer
Select proper quality-loss function for the design evaluation
Select the customer tolerance values for the Quality Loss Function:
Ao ($ lost due to off-target value) and Do (measurement of
Off-target performance in engineering terms)
Determine the cost to the business to adjust the off-target
Performance back to acceptable range during manufacturing: A

Calculate the manufacturing tolerance: D based on Taguchis Equation:

D Do A / Ao

My acceptable variability = Their (customers) acceptable variability x square root

of the ratio between My cost to stay within production tolerance / Their loss if my
product is out of tolerance
EML4550 -- 2007

Traditional Tolerance Curve

Factories would accept or reject product
based on a simple on/off model (step function)
Assumption that customers will behave the same
way is WRONG
Equally bad product

Equally good product

m-Do

m
target

EML4550 -- 2007

Equally bad product

m+Do

Customer Tolerance
Customer tolerance is not a simple step function
Customer tolerance Do corresponds to the point in
which a significant fraction of customers will take
some type of action (e.g., 50% of customers would
complain)
Thermostat example
100
% of people
complaining

50

0
EML4550 -- 2007

70F

75F

80F

Customer Loss Function

Quadratic approximation to the customer loss
function

L( y) k ( y m ) 2

L is the loss function

k is the quality-loss coefficient
y is the performance variable
m is the target performance

L is the economic loss to my customer if my product deviates y from its rated value m

EML4550 -- 2007

Quality Loss Coefficient

The functional limits (m + Do) and (m - Do)
represent the deviations from the target in which
about 50% of the customers would complain
(significant economic loss)
This is essentially a definition of product failure.
The economic loss to the customer associated with
product failure is Ao (e.g., losses due to lack of
access to product plus cost to repair, generally in
terms of $)
Therefore L(y-=m-Do) = L(y+=m+Do)=Ao
Ao
k 2
Do
EML4550 -- 2007

Customer Loss Functions

L(y)

The nominal-the-best case

L( y)

Ao

Ao

m
2

Do

m-Do

L( y )

D o2

y
L(y)

D o2

Do

Ao

y2

y
Do
L(y)

Asymmetric cases
2
L k y m if y m
2
L k y m if y m
EML4550 -- 2007

Ao

The larger-the-better case

L( y) A o

m+Do

L(y)

The smaller-the-better case

Ao

Ao
y
m-Do

m+Do

Taguchi Tolerancing Equations

Concept of Taguchi safety factor in tolerancing
What are the maladies for which we need to build a
safety factor?
Customer dissatisfaction due to quality problems and
customer financial losses (long-term impact to reputation)
Higher manufacturing costs due to re-work and scrap

Define a tolerance level as seen by the customer

(losses) and a tolerance level as seen by the
manufacturing process

EML4550 -- 2007

Taguchis Loss Function

Do
Di
Losses

Ao
Financial incentive
Since A<Ao

Ai
yo yi=m-Di Target (m)

customer tolerance

EML4550 -- 2007

manufacturing tolerance

Note:
Do-Di=range of safety
Do/Di=safety factor

Safety Factor
For a standard quadratic loss
function

Ao
2
2

L( y ) 2 y m k y m
Do

Deviation from target

Di2 y m 2
Loss associated with
deviation

L( y i ) A i

Ao
D o2

Di2

Ai Ao: manufacturing-allowable loss

should be smaller than the customer loss
EML4550 -- 2007

Safety Factor
At what level is the company willing to act to avoid
customer losses by fixing the product back to the
target value before releasing it?
Derived from statistical considerations, sub-o
relates to customer (loss function, and
maximum deviation), sub-i relates to
manufacturer, cost to re-work and maximum
manufacturing tolerance

Economic safety factor

D o2

Ao

2
Ai
Di
D
S o
Di

In general notation:
Ao
S
A
EML4550 -- 2007

Do2

2
Di

Ao
Ai

Safety Factor

S=SQRT[(average loss to (customer) in $ when a product

characteristic exceeds customer tolerance limits)/(average loss to
(manufacturer) in $ when a product characteristics exceeds
manufacturing tolerance limits)]
The Taguchi Approach relates customer tolerances to
engineering tolerances

EML4550 -- 2007

Example
A company makes a power supply. The nominal
(target) value for the supply voltage is 115V. We
know the customer incurs a loss of $200 (Ao, due to
damaging to instrument, loss of productivity, recall,
etc..) when the voltage exceeds 135V (135115=20=Do, deviation from nominal). The
production department has determined that it costs
$5 to re-work (adding current-limiting resistor, etc..)
a power supply that is off-target back to the nominal
value.
What should the manufacturing tolerance be and
what is the economic safety factor?
EML4550 -- 2007

Example

L( y) k y m
2

Ao

m
2

Do

A o $200
D 0 20V

Ao
$200
2
k 2 2

0
.
5
($
/
V
)
2
Do 20 Volts

EML4550 -- 2007

Example
The manufacturing tolerance is:

D Do

A
5
20
3.16V 3V
Ao
200

The safety factor is:

Ao
200
S

6.32
A
5

If the assembly line detects a power supply with voltage

lower than 112V (115-3) or higher than 118V (115+3) it
is economical to pull it off and repair it
The difference between the customer loss and the
manufacturing cost is relatively large (200/5=40)
smaller tolerance is permissible
sqrt(Ao/A)=sqrt(40)=6.32~20/3
EML4550 -- 2007

Example (alternative interpretation)

Ao
200
2
2
L( y ) k y m 2 y m
(
y

m
)
Do
(20) 2
2

L( y ) 0.5( y m) 2
The manufacturing tolerance can be considered as a
deviation
away from the nominal value m Di=y-m
The cost to modify the manufacturing process can be
considered as the
loss function $5
2

5 0.5( y m) y m 3.16 3

EML4550 -- 2007

Average Quality Loss

The average quality loss, Q, from a total of n units from a
specific process can be given by (derived in the next slide)

1
k
Q L( y1 ) L( y2 ) L( yn ) ( y1 m) 2 ( y2 m) 2 ( yn m) 2
n
n
n 1 2

k ( m) 2

n

1 n
1 n
2
2
where yi and
(
y

)
i
n i 1
n 1 i 1

Q k ( m)
2

Deviation of the average

value of y from the target
EML4550 -- 2009

when n is large.

L(y)
Ao

m-Do

Mean squared deviation of y

value away from the target

m+Do

Average Quality Loss

1
L( y1 ) L( y 2 ) L( y n ) k ( y1 m ) 2 ( y 2 m ) 2 ( y n m ) 2
n
n

Q
k
n
k

( y

2my1 m 2 ) ( y 2

i 1

1
k
n

i 1

y i2 2m y i nm 2

y
i 1

2
i

k ( m) 2
n

k ( m) 2
n

2
i

i 1
n

y
i 1

2
i

k
n

y
i 1

1
n

Q k ( m) 2
EML4550 2007

2my n m 2 )

2m ( n ) nm 2

y
i 1

2
i

2 m m 2

k ( m) 2
y i2 2 2 2

n i 1

n
n
1
1

(2 ) yi
2

n i 1
n i 1

y i and

i 1

1 n

k ( m) 2
y i2 2 y i 2

n i 1

n 1 2

k ( m) 2

n

where

2
i

k 2 2
n

2 m m 2
n

2my 2 m 2 ) ( y n

k ( m) 2
n

n
1
( yi ) 2

n 1 i 1

when n is large.

y
i 1

Example
From the previous example, assume the power supplies
manufactured have their mean value centered around the
target (=m) so its loss of quality will be dominated by the
standard deviation term: Q=k2
If the variance of the power supplies =20 volts, determine the
quality loss due to the manufacturing deviation: Q=(0.5)
(20)2=$200
If a resistor is added to the unit, it has been demonstrated that
it can reduced the variance to 15 volts. The cost of the
additional process is $50. Show that whether it is worthwhile?
Q=(0.5)(15)2=$112.5a net decrease of loss 200-112.5=$87.5
with an investment of $50, it seems to be a bargain.
EML4550 -- 2007

Conclusions
The Taguchi Approach can be used at the system
level to interact with outside customers, but it can
also be implemented within a company
Each successive step in the manufacturing process
can be seen as a customer of the previous step
(manufacturing, purchased part, service, etc.)
When implemented on a company-wide basis the
Taguchi Approach can lead to a quasi-optimal
distribution of tolerances among the different
components that go into a final product.

EML4550 -- 2007