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Applying Taguchi methods to health care

Tolga Taner (Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey)
Jiju Antony (Caledonian Business School, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK)

Leadership in Health Services

ISSN: 1366-0756

Article publication date: 1 January 2006

2353

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

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