Design Optimization Case Studies

Designing high quality products at low cost is an economic and technological challenge to the engineer. A systematic and efficient way to meet this challenge is a new method of design optimization for performance, quality, and cost. The method, called “robust design,” has been found effective in many areas of engineering design. In this paper, the basic concepts of robust design will be discussed and two applications will be described in detail. The first application illustrates how, with a very small number of experiments, highly valuable information can be obtained about a large number of variables for improving the life of router bits used for cutting printed wiring boards from panels. The second application shows the optimization of a differential operational amplifier circuit to minimize the dc offset voltage by moving the center point of the design, which does not add to the cost of making the circuit.