An effective approach to teach design of experiments (DOE) using calculation-and-analysis worksheets and computerized spreadsheets

The Ecole de technologie superieure (ETS) of the University of Quebec is offering Design of Experiments (DOE) courses for more than a decade within its undergraduate certificate program of Quality Management and Assurance (QMA). Previous teaching experiences showed that the conceptual aspects of DOE have been somehow difficult to be rapidly and efficiently assimilated by the part-time adult students. Although DOE have proved to be very effective in improving quality through process parameters' optimization, many engineers rejected the idea of applying the technique on the floor level because of the conceptual and statistical barriers. For these reasons, the authors have developed and introduced a new teaching approach in order to clarify the conceptual aspects and simplify the mechanics underlying the DOE techniques and, therefore, help the students to better understand and implement DOE at the workplace. The approach is mainly based on the use of simple and straightforward calculation-and-analysis worksheets that have been developed for the most commonly used experimental designs (full factorial, screening factorial, screening fractional factorial and Taguchi arrays). In this paper, the authors present the approach with a sample of the most pertinent calculation-and-analysis worksheets used along with a practical example.