Definition of a "quality margin" concept permits putting product quality into an optimization model in the constraints instead of only in the objective function, as in Taguchi's method. This permits incorporating not only more than one quality attribute, but also other performance constraints, such as power or strength, into a single optimization model solvable by standard techniques, here monotonicity analysis These ideas are applied to an extended version of Taguchi's didactic electric circuit problem to obtain five very different designs. These illustrate the trade-offs between quality, power consumption, and cost characteristic of many consumer products
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