AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO PROCESS PARAMETER SELECTION

This case study of a process improvement project from the Hewlett‐Packard Analytic Products Group illustrates a number of important approaches for operations strategy. First, we show how process control in capillary tube manufacturing led to a significant improvement in tubing strength, a quality measure that relates to the frequency of tube defects at a particular stress level. Next, we show how one particular approach used for experimental design and process improvement was considerably more economical than another standard method. In conclusion, we link the process characteristics such as defect frequency to strategic measures such as company revenue and investment to underscore the strategic importance of process control.