Applying Taguchi methods to health care
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to show how Taguchi methods can be applied to health care.
Design/methodology/approach
The quadratic loss function is at the heart of Taguchi methods. It is a powerful motivator for a quality strategy and can be used to adequately model the loss to society in health care. It also establishes a relationship between cost and variability. Therefore, it can be integrated with the performance and parameters of the design of medical applications. Signal‐to‐noise ratios give a sense of how close is the performance to the ideal. By maximizing the signal‐to‐noise ratio, quality‐engineering activities can be aimed at identifying near‐optimum levels of factors and making quality equal to zero.
Findings
This article shows that, when the patients' requirements are consistently met, lower losses can provide an impetus to improve patient satisfaction.
Originality/value
The article outlines areas in health care where Taguchi methods can easily be applied.
Keywords
Citation
Taner, T. and Antony, J. (2006), "Applying Taguchi methods to health care", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 26-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/13660750610643831
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited