Modelling robustness for manufacturing processes: a critical review

‘Robustness’ is an important concept used in quality engineering for the improvement of quality in a manufacturing process. A process which is insensitive to noise variation is called a robust process. The robustness is modelled by several researchers and practioners for its design and implementation in a manufacturing process. A review of all these approaches is essential in order to assess their strengths, limitations and applicability under different process conditions and constraints. Over the years, many of these approaches have found widespread application in measuring, assessing and modelling of process robustness in manufacturing and other industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to review critically the existing approaches as proposed and applied for measuring and evaluating robustness of manufacturing processes. Based on the critical appraisal, the key issues are identified and a generic framework for modelling and measuring of process robustness in single- and multi-stage manufacturing processes is presented.