The partial information case for multivariate tolerance design using scrapor rework costs

Contemporary product and/or process design consists of three phases, which involves system design, parameter design, and tolerance design. The focus o f this paper is on tolerance design, where cases considered involve multipl e performance measures that are influenced by a common set of design parame ters. Procedures are developed for assessing tolerances on design parameter s where the only information available consists of the mean and variance of each design parameter. This is called the partial information case (as opp osed to the full information case, where design parameter distributions are known). Minimax cost models are derived to determine appropriate tolerance allocations. Models are constructed that consider operational environments for both suppliers and manufacturers where a nonconforming product is scra pped and/or reworked. Examples are also used to compare the minimax model t olerance allocations to those achieved by standard, full information, stati stical models.