Early Tolerance Management and Robust Design

Tolerance management activities, such as specification, allocation, analysis, and synthesis, are commonly assigned to the late stages in product development when the product’s geometry is already fixed. However, inspired by the robust design philosophy, an early consideration of potential variations along the whole product development process bears great potential for an efficient tolerance management, since it allows easy design adaptions without the need for tight tolerances to fulfill the product requirements. Nevertheless, the lack of specific approaches and the missing geometry information, which is usually the basis for the application of established tolerance management methods, currently prevents the early realization and therefore calls for new methods. Thus, this article provides a framework for early consideration of variations by linking aspects from tolerance management, robust design, and quality management and its close integration into the product development process. This includes a structured robustness evaluation of principle solutions, a computer-aided robustness synthesis of concepts, and the automated tolerance specification and analysis of preliminary CAD designs. Thus, it contributes to shorter development times by automation and avoiding extensive iterations and provides a robust and reliable basis for the established tolerance management activities at the end of product development.