Statistical tolerance design to minimize dual-responses of APFA height deviations with tolerance cost-quality loss model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply the statistical tolerancing technique to analyze the dual responses of APFA arm height deviation with respect to next stage of disk assembly process and simultaneously optimize and allocate the required tolerance of the responses onto its components at minimum cost of manufacturing and the quality loss. Design/methodology/approach – The relationships between the dual responses of APFA heights and the geometric dimensions and tolerances of APFA components, and orientation of the assembled part with respect to disk assembly were first defined. The effects of the APFA orientation, and the component tolerances on the distributions and variations of the responses were derived and investigated in terms of resultant product/process performance, quality loss, and the cost of assembly. The tolerance cost-based objective function is then formulated as the combined manufacturing/assembly cost and the quality loss. Direct search method was used to find the best feasible tolerance solutions satisfying the required product performance at minimum cost. Findings – The constructed relationship or transfer functions of the dual responses were probabilistic depending on the orientation of part with respect to the next assembly process. The Monte Carlo simulation is empirically suitable for the computation of the conditional distributions of the responses against the first-order linear approximation of component variances. The proposed solution of tolerance control plan increases the product performances, C pm , from 0.6 to be at least 1. The proposed tolerance allocation plans will reduce the amount of rework currently as high as 5 percent to at most 0.01 percent with minimally increased assembly cost. Practical implications – This proposed methodology to design and allocate component tolerances is suitable and applicable to the APFA assembly process. The derived assembly functions of probabilistic type relating the responses to the process and component characteristics can represent the actual dynamic of assembled part better than a traditional single deterministic function developed under static concept. This presented methodology can be applied to other assembly cases where quality characteristic depends on the part dynamic. Originality/value – This research simultaneously optimized the dual APFA height deviation responses with minimum cost of tolerance and quality loss using two different conditional distributions and transfer functions of the resultant deviations generated from dynamic of APFA with respect to disk.