OPTIMIZATION OF MECHANICAL ASSEMBLY TOLERANCES BY INCORPORATING TAGUCHIS QUALITY LOSS FUNCTION

In an end-to-end mechanical assembly, optimization of tolerance alloca tion is a critical issue. Many papers have concentrated on minimum cos t-tolerance allocation without considering the quality of the final as sembly. The objective is to examine the optimal tolerance allocation b y considering both tolerance cost and quality loss so that the total a ssembly cost is minimized. In this paper, a sensitivity analysis is al so conducted to determine the effects of shifts in a component's mean and variance. We find that if a component's mean varies, only the qual ity loss associated with that component will be changed. If a componen t's variance shifts, the optimal allowance, tolerance costs, and quali ty losses associated with each component will be affected.