Using design of experiments (DOE), a supplier of thermally conductive insulation recently solved an adhesive-liner problem encountered while supplying its Detroit-automaker cust- omer. The need for the supplier to turn to an effective quality-improvement tool like DOE began when the automaker reported that an unacceptably high percentage of pad-top liners was failing to release properly. (See Figure 1.)
A short time before the problem surfaced, the engineer in charge of the pad-liner project had attended a DOE workshop. The introductory workshop, Experiment Design Made Easy, covers the practical aspects of DOE. The trainee learns all about simple but very powerful two-level factorial designs. The workshop follows the standard approach outlined in Box, Hunter and Hunter’s classic, Statistics for Experimenters. During this workshop, the student discovers how to effectively: