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

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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.

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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)

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Tolerance Design: Process Flow Diagram

Customer Tolerances Customer Costs & Losses

Product Output Product Output Response

Response Tolerance Process Capabilities

System and Assembly

System and Process Capabilities
Assembly Tolerances

Component Part Component Part

Tolerances Process Capability

Manufacturing Process Manufacturing Process

Parameter Tolerances Capabilities

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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 Y14-5M-
1982 (R1988) (American National Standards
Institute-ANSI)

The total amount by which a given dimension may

vary, or the difference between the limits

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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

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Classical Tolerance Design Process

Select Process

Change Process
Collect Statistical Data

Under
N
Control?
Work on process

Y Management Decision

Live with it
Change Specs
Y Process
N Test 100%
Capable?
Stop Production

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Classical Tolerance Design Process (Contd)

Specs
N
Being Met?
Recenter Process

Continue Gathering Statistics

For continued process improvement,

conduct designed and controlled
experiments to further reduce variability

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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

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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 off-
line QC was properly implemented)

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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).

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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
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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 Equally bad product

m-Do m m+Do

target
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 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 70F 75F 80F

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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

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 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

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 Customer Loss Functions
L(y)
The nominal-the-best case
Ao
Ao
L( y) 2
y m 2
Do m-Do m m+Do y

L(y)
The smaller-the-better case
Ao
Ao
L( y ) y 2
D o2 y
L(y) Do
The larger-the-better case
D o2
L( y) A o Ao

y2 y
Do
L(y)
Asymmetric cases
L k y m if y m
2
Ao

L k y m if y m
2
y
m-Do m m+Do
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 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

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 Taguchis Loss Function

Do

Di
Losses

Ao

Financial incentive Ai
Since A<Ao
yo yi=m-Di Target (m)

customer tolerance manufacturing tolerance

Note:
Do-Di=range of safety
EML4550 -- 2007 Do/Di=safety factor
 Safety Factor

For a standard quadratic loss

function
Ao
2

L( y ) 2 y m k y m 2

Do
Deviation from target

Di2 y m 2
Loss associated with
deviation

Ao
L( y i ) A i Di2
D o2
Ai Ao: manufacturing-allowable loss
should be smaller than the customer loss
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 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 D o2 Ao
maximum deviation), sub-i relates to
2

manufacturer, cost to re-work and maximum Di Ai
manufacturing tolerance

Economic safety factor

D Do2 Ao
S o 2

Di Di Ai

In general notation:
Ao
S
A

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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

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 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 (135-
115=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?

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Example

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

A o $200
D 0 20V

Ao $200 2
k 2 2 2
0 . 5($ / V )
Do 20 Volts

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 Example

The manufacturing tolerance is:

A 5
D Do 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

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Example (alternative interpretation)

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

Do (20) 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
5 0.5( y m) y m 3.16 3
2

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 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
n
k

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

n 1 2
k ( m) 2
n
1 n 1 n
where yi and i
L(y)
2
( y ) 2

n i 1 n 1 i 1 Ao

Q k ( m)
2 2
when n is large. m-Do m

m+Do y

Deviation of the average Mean squared deviation of y

value of y from the target value away from the target
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 Average Quality Loss

Q
1
n

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

k
n
( y 1
2
2my1 m 2 ) ( y 2
2
2my 2 m 2 ) ( y n
2
2my n m 2 )
k n n
k n

n y i2 2m y i nm 2
n
y 2
i 2m ( n ) nm 2
i 1 i 1 i 1
1 n
1 n

k
n
y
i 1
2
i 2 m m 2

k 2 2
n
y
i 1
2
i 2 m m 2

1 n
1 n
k ( m) 2
n
y i 1
2
i 2

k ( m) 2


n i 1
y i2 2 2 2

1 n
1 n
1 n

k ( m) 2
n
y 2
i
n i 1
(2 ) yi
n i 1
2
i 1

1 n
y i2 2 y i 2
n
1
k ( m) 2 k ( m) 2 y
2
i
n i 1 n i 1
n 1 2
k ( m) 2
n
n n
1 1
where
n

i 1
y i and 2

n 1 i 1
( yi ) 2

Q k ( m) 2 2
when n is large.

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 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.
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 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.

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