Performance Measures Independent of Adjustment - An Explanation and Extension of Taguchi's Signal-to-Noise Ratios

Parameter design is a method, popularized by Japanese quality expert G. Taguchi, for designing products and manufacturing that are robust to uncontrollable variations. In parameter design, Taguchi's stated objective is to find the settings of product or process design parameters the minimize average quadratic loss - that is, the average squared deviation of the response from its target value. Yet, in practice, to choose the settings of design parameters he maximizes a set of measures called signal-to-noise ratios.