What is the Taguchi Principle?

Taguchi Principle: Loss Function
Nol Geurts, Interim Manager, Netherlands, Member
Tachuchi explained the loss function for the first time to the world. He explained that if the dispersion is reduced, the loss will drop. Of course this idea is fully adopted in the 6S road map.

Taguchi Loss Function
jeff stewart, Manager, United States, Member
Is still a sound statistical tool to quantify loss... Or percent fall out. Many companies that practice Lean & Six-Sigma production; and statistical process control (SPC) use the loss function quite effectively. Taguchi, Donald Wheeler and others have some excellent writings on uses of the loss function.

Taguchi's Concepts
Madan Gopal Agarwal, Business Consultant, India, Member
I would prefer to call them 'concepts' as there are no 'principle(s)' defined under his name.
It started with 'fundamental concepts on how to design and manufacture a reliable and quality product at lowest cost'. Its application is universal given its step-by-step structured approach, be it in new system, product or process design or improving the existing one.
The only thing it demands from practitioners is self-discipline. The rest is provided by the concept itself.

Consequences of Spotting Errors Later
Iraklis Goniadis
The Taguchi principle in practice means that the later you spot the error, the more it costs to correct it. This principle doen't identyfy the causes, but makes you realize the consequences.

Taguchi and Cause and Effect Analysis
Anthony Stephenson, Business Consultant, New Zealand, Member
The above are appropriate comments for Taguchi having heard the original presentation in Stockholm 1985. Sensible link to C and E Diagrams. It's useful to use the C and E Diagram in a positive context as well. This is not often done, but should be.

Taguchi Principle
Walter Plagge, Business Consultant, Germany, Member
It means, that every deviation from a target is a loss of quality, even if standards and specifications are met. So good enough may be not good; you always have to become better. e.g. customer expectations will increase as well as competitor's performance.

Taguchi Principle
Varadarajan, Consultant, India, Member
It is about losses that occur when a process deviates from its standard path. The Taguchi Principle says that as the amount of deviation increases, the losses also increase as against the traditional view that all losses are equal in terms of waste.
Additionally - even when we are within tolerance limits - the more we deviate from the ideal value we incur losses.
From a logistical perspective you could look at delivery times, vehicle utilization etc. Fix a benchmark and find the deviations. The further away you are from the benchmark, the more your losses. You could use the Fish Bone Chart on this page to identify the root causes and formulate a solution.

Taguchi Principle
nabzar, Manager, Morocco, Member
It's better known as Taguchi method. The diagnostic is based on the variation of the rate signal/nose specific to a given system.
Usually when in a production system a deviation appears, people focus their investigation on the processes (machines). Taguchi does the opposite and considers the processes as a black box and focuses the diagnostic on the inputs using experience plans.

Taguchi Method
rofoogar, Analyst, Iran, Member
I think Taguchi methods are concerned with the optimization of product and process before manufacturing, concentrating on quality loss rather than quality. Optimization involves experimental design using simple designs to estimate main effects. The success factor of the Taguchi method is partly a consequence of the experimentation being tailored to the application.

Taguchi Concept
James Gaius Ibe, Business Consultant, United States, Member
In practice, the Taguchi approach requires continuous improvement. If quality is defined as meeting customers expectations, anything that unduly elevates customers expectations changes the reference point and customers notion of quality.
Simply put, to maximize the wealth producing capacity of the enterprise, firms should promise what they can deliver, then deliver more than they promise.
Further, efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness are the building blocks of sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, changing customers expectations requires continuous improvements to build and sustain competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

Taguchi Principle
HesKama, Manager, Kenya, Member
Is there any relation between the taguchi priciple and Kaizen quality concept?

Taguchi and Ishikawa Reduce Imperfect Products
GS RADJOU, CEO, France, Member
Both Taguchi and Ishikawa are generic models to reduce imperfect product or services. To ensure quality, one should control before during and after the supply chain. The cheapest control is before the raw materials enter the chain.

The Taguchi Loss Function
Dmitry Kosintsev, Manager, Russian Federation, Member
Taguchi is of the opinion that every deviation from the target value causes a loss that (in the eyes of the customer) grows gradually and progressively with the deviation from the target value.
Note that in the traditional approach we think and assume there is no (further) loss between the low and upper limits, because if a product does not meet the minimal designed specifications its value for the customer is assumed to be zero.

Taguchi Philosophy: 7 Points
Dmitry Kosintsev, Manager, Russian Federation, Member
1. Lack of quality is the total cost for society that is caused by the product after delivery to the customer.
2. Continues quality improvements and cost reductions are necessary for a company to stay in business.
3. A quality improvement program has to aim continuously at reducing the deviation of the product performance characteristics from their target value.
4. The customer loss due to the product performance variations can be regarded as increasing as the square of the deviation from the target values.
5. The product quality is to a large extent determined by the design and manufacturing processes.
6. Often a non-linear relation exists between the design parameters and the product characteristics. This can be used to reduce the sensitivity to disturbances of the product characteristics. The same applies for production processes.
7. Design of experiments can be used to identify the parameter combinations that reduce the variation of the product characteristics.

Relation Between the Taguchi Loss Function and Kaizen
Jaap de Jonge, Editor, Netherlands
@HesKama: Because Dr. Genichi Taguchi argued that product quality in the eyes of the customer is not an on/off or good/no good situation but a gradual situation in which losses increase geometrically as the square of the deviation from the target (more deviation means a lot more loss of value), I believe the Taguchi Principle is conducive for Kaizen and continuous improvement.