Teaching experimental design techniques to industrial engineers

Experimental Design (ED) is a powerful technique for understanding a process, studying the impact of potential variables or factors affecting the process and thereby providing spontaneous insight for continuous quality improvement possibilities. ED has proved to be very effective for improving the process yield, process capability, process performance and reducing process variability. However research has shown that the application of this powerful technique by the engineering fraternity in manufacturing companies is limited due to lack of skills and expertise in manufacturing, lack of statistical knowledge required by industrial engineers and so on. This paper illustrates some of the recent research findings on the problems and gaps in the state-of-the-art in ED. In order to bridge the gap in the statistical knowledge required by engineers, the article presents a paper helicopter experiment which can be easily carried out in a class-room to teach experimental design techniques. The results of the experiment have provided a greater stimulus for the wider application of ED by industrial engineers in real-life situations for tackling quality problems.