Prototype performane improvement through DoE: Baja Car case study Seminar

Abstract
Companies always seek strategies to shorten product development and reduce time-to-market. Although new technologies allow for less effort in prototyping, physical testing still remains an important step in the product development cycle. Design of experiments is a useful tool to guide decision-making. During the design phase of an experiment one of the greatest challenges is to deal with limited resources. Usually, a completely randomized design is a costly alternative to execute an experiment. As a consequence, designs with randomization restrictions, such as split-plot designs, become attractive approaches. In this talk, we present an approach to choose designs especially useful for physical prototype testing, aiming at reduction of execution time. More specifically, a split-split-split-plot design is considered. Characteristics of the design are provided and it is shown how to appropriately analyse the data through a real application in testing car prototypes. As a tool to practitioners, catalogs of selected 32-run designs are discussed. Joint work with Andre L. S. de Pinho (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte ? Brazil) and Linda L. Ho (University of São Paulo ? Brazil).