Case Studies and White Papers
Lean Six Meets Foil Stamping
A large printing company tasked a Lean Six Sigma project team with finding a way to reduce setup time and costs in a department consisting of 33 Kluge presses. The results of the DOE led to a reduction of 5% in printing costs by moving to a less expensive foil for that job, and other knowledge gained from the experiment led to a 40% reduction in setup time over the last two years.
Optimizing Design of Experiments for Fluid Bed Coating
Upsher-Smith Laboratories used response surface methods (RSM) to optimize a fluid bed coating process that was producing inconsistent results. Aided by Design-Expert software, scientists discovered a most desirable setup that gave consistent results within specifications with little variability. When transferred to production, the new setup provided excellent results.
Automated Enzyme Assay Design and Optimization
This poster displays the abstract and results of an experiment done to optimize enzymatic assays. Experimenters tested buffer, detergent, salt, and cation combinations using a 384-well microtiter plate format. The presence of different detergents and their interactions with different buffers had a profound effect on the enzyme turnover.
Design of Experiments Reduces Rubber Scrap by 90%
A custom rubber molder used DOE to uncover a combination of material selection and manufacturing protocol that created unacceptable results. Armed with this process knowledge, they achieved breakthrough quality improvements.
A major Tier 1 automotive supplier wanted to improve the already high level of quality in their manufacturing process welding nuts to a metal seat frame. They contacted Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and requested a design of experiments (DOE) study to determine root causes of torque failures and areas of improvement.
This article demonstrates how to uncover "sweet spots" where multiple fab-process specifications can be met in a most desirable way.
Mixture DOE catalyzed development of a primer-paint remover that met the requirements of an aircraft manufacturer for environmental safety and speed. The new formulation took only 2 hours to strip off coatings, a huge improvement over competitive products that needed over 8 hours.
Design of experiments was used for a series of computer simulations to design a new generation of muzzle brakes. DOE saves time by reducing the amount of simulations required and makes it possible to optimize the design with a higher level of certainty.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Increases Yield with Response Surface Methods
MannKind Corporation used designed experiments to identify and optimize critical process variables involved in producing a small molecule substrate for use in pulmonary drug delivery.
In this mini-paper, Mark Anderson details an in-class experiment illustrating the power of two-level factorial design. Also learn how to shoot a wicked slap shot!