Discussion

摘要

I congratulate the authors for a clear, concise, and extremely well-written description of the Shainin system. There has always been a certain amount of confusion (indeed, even mystery) surrounding these ideas, partly because the developers never submitted the approach and some of its unique tools and perspective to peer review. This paper does not completely do that, but it is an excellent first step. My only criticism of the paper is that the authors are not as harsh in their criticism of the Shainin system as I would have been. While they point out that the methods are most likely to work best in medium to high volume manufacturing where intervening in the process is difficult, I am not convinced that their techniques and "system" of implementing them would be effective in anything but the simplest sort of low-technology manufacturing processes. Even in those cases, I believe more standard approaches based on sound statistical science, and reflective of good engineering practice, would be at least as effective. Using the Shainin system in high-technology manufacturing, manufacturing biotechnological products, and chemical and process settings seems unwise and unworkable.