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He began developing and seeing results from his Design Of Experiments techniques at the General Motors Research Labs in 1986. He has refined and tested them in various environments, including automotive, aerospace instrumentation, armament technology and medical products in roles ranging from R&D, to design and production. His unique insight into how Design Of Experiments is best used has saved project schedule (months) and money ($400k on average) while solving problems in all of these industries. He also has the ability to gain insight in data that is previously considered "useless".

He has been grooming a new generation of experts in a university setting since 1996. This involves a semester long, graduate level course in Design of Experiments.

He partners with a company's innovative thinkers for strategic testing. This helps to design and improve products and processes for focus, robustness and optimization. For growing, technically based companies, this has saved money, reduced development time by months and resolved competing requirements. The implementation track record of over 300 projects averaging $40k of benefit each speaks to the results obtained. Tools covered include full and fractional factorials, central composite, Box-Behnken, Taguchi, D-Optimal, mixtures and other advanced tools. Analysis software includes Minitab, Design- Expert and JMP.

Process optimization requires several considerations: process understanding, determination of desired standardized working levels and practical considerations to maximize yields yet reduce variability. It is also important to handle uncontrollable input variations. He has demonstrated this ability to see beyond basic application of Design Of Experiments in his work with companies. The resulting solutions have been maintained for years after initial introduction, thus eliminating issues that had existed for a long time.

Good product design leads to good process implementation. He has led design projects with cost and manufacturability targets ranging from $10,000 systems to $1,000,000 systems. The end products require high reliability, critical operation and profitable business results. Customer feedback has recognized the ability to see the design from the customer point of view. Obtaining understanding through simulations, modeling and Design of Experiments has provided supportable designs, reduced prototyping costs and getting to market quicker. This understanding leads to nominal settings and tolerance specifications which reduce product variation and deal with environmental noise.

He has experience performing product testing for a wide range of customer expectations, including FDA Testing, was conducted for electrical properties, mechanical performance and user interface. Test objectives ranged from Research and Development projects for proof of concept, design for new product releases, laboratory for pilot plant start up, manufacturing process capability, product and process optimization, and for validation of manufacturing processes. Understanding of requirements, design intent and engineering principles has made for efficient yet effective test strategy development.

Experimentation and design of products and processes are dependent on adequate measurement systems. This area is related to the core Expert focus of Design of Experiments. This component is part of an industrial training program that the Expert teaches and applies.

Using engineering principles and empirically developed equations through Design of Experiments naturally leads to the use of Monte Carlo methods for sensitivity analysis and decision making. Expert has developed and executed projects using a mix of the above techniques to resolve challenging situations.

After developing products and processes, a related area is to ensure long term process capability and process control. Expert has experience applying these tools and teaching them within applied industrial courses. Division wide implementation projects have provided the Expert a scope of issues and the key needs for success.

FMEA is a tool that can highlight the need for Design of Experiments. The medical industry increasingly uses FMEA to assess risk. Expert has experience applying FMEA to design and to processes in several industries. He also teaches an FMEA component in an industrial training program.

Expert has experience applying QFD in high visibility situations. This has gone beyond the basic "House of Quality" approach. It includes concept selection and breakthrough techniques. Highlighted areas from the QFD effort often identify opportunities for use of Design of Experiments. At a minimum, QFD can focus and prioritize resources in a project plan and develop a strategic product development road map.

Expert has knowledge and experience with project management tools for product, process and software development efforts. Scale has included up to $30M projects. He also has experience with estimating costs for development efforts. This has included parametric methods, bottoms up and similarity. Working with company experts, this skill allows development projects to have a reasonable estimate for completion. This includes assessment and inclusion of the risk potential into cost and schedule estimates. Expert has experience with contingency plans for projects in the execution phase. While Design of Experiments is one way to reduce cost and schedule, it is only one technique used. Other techniques include basic project strategy, people aspects to project management and early identification and removal of roadblocks. These techniques are taught within the university classroom setting and in industrial training as a part of running a successful Design of Experiments project.

He resolved a manufacturing process issue which was risking the product development investment for a significant project. This resulted in operating in an unexpected area yet the capability of confident production and delivery of products.He helped develop a testing strategy for a new product development project. Historically, the competing requirements could not be resolved cost effectively. In a short period of time, a scalable solution was found to meet the current needs as well as future needs.He provided DOE training services to a company who was reluctant regarding the value of training in general. After the first DOE training class was completed, the VP of operations requested additional training courses to be conducted as soon as possible based on the benefits created for the company.He provided DOE expertise to create a design solution for an implantable medical device that most thought was an impossible project. He further provided manufacturing process improvements so the production was of higher capability. Within all of this, he assisted the project manager to deal with the management aspects of the project - dealing with the executive team as well as with team members.He has developed training for companies who want the secrets of how to apply tools, not just hear about general templates and techniques. This has resulted in practical training with use in actual work applications. It also provides usable reference materials when challenging situations crop up in the future.