Chad Vader,
Ok, sounds good to me. Implement what is already known to work, right? But why wasn’t the “known” solution implemented BEFORE you or I get the call to come help.
My experience is that everyone involved in a process has the “known” solution, but very, very, very few actually have the data (Y=f(X)) data to prove it as known.
As a very well renowned process improvement expert said in front of me once, “show me you data or take a break from the room to wash you hands and face, then come back to the room”.
When you have the data, then you know. If you don’t have the data then you don’t know, you just believe (which is a good thing in that we can learn from that belief using data in the future, i.e., a DOE). And finally, do you know how your “known” solution will affect all other parts of the process? You probably do not, even if you have data from another place (e.g., book, expert or other device). But a DOE will answer this for you.
So the Engineer in you should be strongly in favor of DOE to know what “known” ideas work, which ones don’t do a thing, and which ones actually hurt, in concurrence with each other.
Respectfully,
Dr. Scott
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