Use of Robust Design Technique in Job Shop Manufacturing: A Case Study of Die-Sinking Electro Discharge Machining

摘要

Job shops typically run in small manufacturing businesses handling job production. In general, they move on to different jobs when each job is completed. The nature of the job shop type of manufacturing operation means that it usually requires different skills, expert knowledge, machine settings, materials and processes. In this context, when the die-sinking electro discharge machining (EDM) process has been used for job shops, as it involves several parameters, their settings have to be pre-determined to achieve optimized manufacturing and quality performance. It is possible to accomplish this via a 'parameter design' approach suggested in the robust design technique (RDT). The 'parameter design' focuses on designing a process to make the performance minimally sensitive to the various causes of variation. This manuscript illustrates the use of RDT in optimizing the performance of die-sinking EDM. It also verifies the reliability of the approach using a verification experiment.