Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239

Surface roughness optimization in an end-milling operation

using the Taguchi design method
Julie Z. Zhang a, , Joseph C. Chen b , E. Daniel Kirby b
aDepartment of Industrial Technology, University of Northern Iowa, Iowa, USA
b Department of Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering, Industrial Technology, Iowa State University, Iowa, USA
Received 27 January 2006; received in revised form 7 July 2006; accepted 27 September 2006

Abstract
This paper presents a study of the Taguchi design application to optimize surface quality in a CNC face milling operation. Maintaining good
surface quality usually involves additional manufacturing cost or loss of productivity. The Taguchi design is an efficient and effective experimental
method in which a response variable can be optimized, given various control and noise factors, using fewer resources than a factorial design. This
study included feed rate, spindle speed and depth of cut as control factors, and the noise factors were the operating chamber temperature and the
usage of different tool inserts in the same specification, which introduced tool condition and dimensional variability. An orthogonal array of L9 (34 )
was used; ANOVA analyses were carried out to identify the significant factors affecting surface roughness, and the optimal cutting combination
was determined by seeking the best surface roughness (response) and signal-to-noise ratio. Finally, confirmation tests verified that the Taguchi
design was successful in optimizing milling parameters for surface roughness.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Taguchi design; Surface roughness; Milling operations

1. Introduction
1.1. Background
As a basic machining process, milling is one of the most
widely used metal removal processes in industry and milled sur-
faces are largely used to mate with other parts in die, aerospace,
automotive, and machinery design as well as in manufactur-
ing industries [1,2]. Surface roughness is an important measure
of the technological quality of a product and a factor that
greatly influences manufacturing cost. The mechanism behind
the formation of surface roughness is very dynamic, compli-
cated, and process dependent; it is very difficult to calculate its
value through theoretical analysis [3]. Therefore, machine oper-
ators usually use trial and error approaches to set-up milling
machine cutting conditions in order to achieve the desired sur-
face roughness. Obviously, the trial and error method is not
effective and efficient and the achievement of a desirable value
Corresponding author at: 37 ITC, Cedar Falls, IA 50613 0178, USA.
Tel.: +1 319 273 2590; fax: +1 319 273 5818.
E-mail address: julie.zhang@uni.edu (J.Z. Zhang).
is a repetitive and empirical process that can be very time con-
suming. The dynamic nature and widespread usage of milling
operations in practice have raised a need for seeking a systematic
approach that can help to set-up milling operations in a timely
manner and also to help achieve the desired surface roughness
quality.
1.2. Background of Taguchi design
One method presented in this study is an experimental design
process called the Taguchi design method. Taguchi design,
developed by Dr. Genichi Taguchi, is a set of methodologies by
which the inherent variability of materials and manufacturing
processes has been taken into account at the design stage.
The application of this technique had become widespread in
many US and European industries after the 1980s. The beauty
of Taguchi design is that multiple factors can be considered
at once. Moreover, it seeks nominal design points that are
insensitive to variations in production and user environments
to improve the yield in manufacturing and the reliability in
performance of a product [4]. Therefore, not only can controlled
factors be considered, but also noise factors. Although similar to
design of experiment (DOE), the Taguchi design only conducts

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.11.029
234 J.Z. Zhang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239
Fig. 1. Taguchi design procedure.
the balanced (orthogonal) experimental combinations, which
makes the Taguchi design even more effective than a fractional
factorial design. By using the Taguchi techniques, industries
are able to greatly reduce product development cycle time
for both design and production, therefore reducing costs and
increasing profit. Moreover, Taguchi design allows looking
into the variability caused by noise factors, which are usually
ignored in the traditional DOE approach.
1.3. Procedure of the Taguchi design method
To better understand Taguchi design, the procedure of the
Taguchi design is described in Fig. 1. The complete procedure in
Taguchi design method can be divided into three stages: system
design, parameter design, and tolerance design (shown in Fig. 1).
Of the three design stages, the second stage the parameter
design is the most important stage [5]. It has been widely
applied in the US and Japan with great success for optimizing
industrial/production processes. The stage of Taguchi parameter
design requires that the factors affecting quality characteristics
in the manufacturing process have been determined. The major
goal of this stage is to identify the optimal cutting conditions
that yield the lowest surface roughness value (Ra ).
The steps included in the Taguchi parameter design are:
selecting the proper orthogonal array (OA) according to the num-
bers of controllable factors (parameters); running experiments
based on the OA; analyzing data; identifying the optimum con-
dition; and conducting confirmation runs with the optimal levels
of all the parameters. The details regarding these steps will be
described in the section of experimental design.
1.4. Application of the Taguchi parameter design in milling
operations
As applying Taguchi parameter design requires the identifica-
tion of factors affecting targeted quality characteristics, relevant
literature must be reviewed to screen the most important among
a number of factors or conditions affecting surface roughness
of milled surface. As a multi-point machining process, more
potential variability makes it even harder to obtain a surface
roughness model in milling operations compared with single
point machining [3]. Tsai et al. [3] stated that the possible fac-
tors affecting surface finish were found to be feed rate, cutting
speed, depth of cut, cutter geometry, cutter runout, tool wear, and
the cutter force and vibration under dynamic cutting conditions.
Using Taguchi design, Fuh and Wu [6] included cutting speed,
feed rate, depth of cut, tool nose radius, and flank as control
factors for the creation of a statistical model to predict surface
roughness for aluminum parts in end milling operations. Ghani
et al., [7] conducted a study to optimize cutting conditions for
hardened steel under semi-finish and finish conditions. Apply-
ing cutting speed, feed rate, and depth as control factors, they
used measured responses (i.e., surface roughness and resultant
cutting force) and their calculated signal-to-noise ratio to deter-
mine the optimal cutting condition. Bouzid et al. [8] did research
to obtain optimal cutting parameters such as cutting speed, feed
per tooth, and cutting depth for surface roughness in down face
milling operations by using duplex (ferritic/austenitic) stainless
steel and carbon steel compositions as samples. Also applying
these three cutting parameters as control factors, Lin [9] stud-
ied multiple characteristics including removed volume, surface
roughness, and burr height, and in this research a weighted value
was used to optimize the cutting condition for face milling oper-
ations. The studies reviewed above indicated although applied in
various working conditions for solving different, specific prob-
lems, they all selected the three commonly applied machining
parameters feed rate, cutting speed, and depth of cut as con-
trol factors. These studies indicated that the technique of Taguchi
parameter design worked well in optimizing cutting parameters
to achieve the surface finish result.
Following the review above, this study included feed rate,
spindle speed, and depth of cut as control variables. Since sur-
face cutting speed (in feet per minute) is linearly correlated to
feed rate (in inches per tooth or inches per revolution), the con-
trol variable of cutting speed was specified as spindle speed
(in revolutions per minute) in this study. Tool wear is another
important factor impacting the surface quality of parts in milling
operation [10]. It is hard to categorize the degree of tool wear
in machining practices. Therefore, tool wear is considered a
noise factor by applying a set of brand new tool inserts and a
set of tool inserts in the same geometric specification but with
slight wear in a face mill cutter. In addition, another possible
variable is the machining environmental temperature, and it has
been suggested that the surrounding temperature is an influen-
tial factor in analysis of the thermal machining dynamics [11].
Adding temperature as a noise factor enables this study to sim-
ulate the impacts that a harsh machining temperature such as
non-air conditioned shops will have on surface finish. Coolant
is often used in machining processes not only to reduce heat from
the tool and the workpiece, but also to lubricate the machined
surface. Due to the constraints of the lab condition, the impact
of coolants to surface roughness was not included in this study.
A research proposal has been submitted regarding the bio-based
 J.Z. Zhang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239 235

Table 1 as indicated in Table 1. The addition of noise factors is optional, and requires
The basic Taguchi L9 (34 ) orthogonal array that each run should be conducted once for each combination of noise factors.
However, this study did not use all the array cells for four factors, because
Run Control factors and levels
only three factors were considered (spindle speed, feed rate, and depth of cut).
A B C D Therefore, the last column (for the fourth factor) in the L9 (34 ) orthogonal array
is left empty for this specific study.
1 1 1 1 1 The selected parameters, as discussed in the introduction, are listed in Table 2
2 1 2 2 2 along with their applicable codes and values for use in the Taguchi parameter
3 1 3 3 3 design study. The control and noise factors are independent variables, and the
4 2 1 2 3 response variable is the dependent variable.
5 2 2 3 1 The control factors are the basic controlled parameters used in a milling oper-
6 2 3 1 2 ation. The spindle speeds and depth of cut were selected from within the range
7 3 1 3 2 of parameters for finishing and semi-finishing milling of aluminum. The feed
8 3 2 1 3 rates were slightly lower than normally used for milling aluminum workpieces,
9 3 3 2 1 in consideration of safety concerns.
The noise factors listed in Table 2 are variables often uncontrolled in machine
shops, which may affect the surface roughness of a milling operation mentioned
cutting fluids, and related research may be conducted in the earlier. The temperature ranges included both a normal (6575 F/18.323.9 C)
future. and a high (95100 F/3537.8 C) shop temperature range. The normal range
includes a range of common temperatures based on what heating and air con-
ditioning systems are usually set for, or normal room temperature. The high
2. Purpose of study temperature range is what a machine shop without air conditioning in some
areas would expect during the summer. The second noise factor is the use of
The Taguchi parameter design stage is the primary design either good inserts or inserts with light tool wear, which introduces a variable
applied in the study, and the purpose of this study is to effi- common to all machine shops. The light tool wear on the inserts was created
by lightly grinding the cutting edge with a small abrasive grinder. The light
ciently determine the optimal face milling parameters to achieve
tool wear here means no crater wear on the insert surfaces, some friction marks
the smallest surface roughness value for aluminum parts under indicating slight flank wear.
varying conditions. The questions that this study will address A modified orthogonal array in Table 3 was created using the basic Taguchi
include the following: orthogonal array and the selected parameters from Table 2. In this array, the
basic array with the control factors are shown as the inner control factor array,
and the added noise factors are shown in the outer noise array. Since all nine
What are the relationships between the controllable factors
cutting conditions specified in the array come with four combinations of noise
(in the study: spindle speed, feed rate, and depth of cut) and factors (normal temperature with no tool wear, normal temperature with light
the response factor (surface roughness)? tool wear, high temperature with no tool wear, and high temperature with light
How do the noise factors (temperature and tool wear) affect tool wear), it brings the total number of runs to 36 for the experiment.
the response factor?
What are the optimal conditions of the milling parameters for 3.2. Experimental set-up and procedure
surface roughness?
After the orthogonal array has been selected, the second step in Taguchi
What are the optimal conditions for the two noise factors?
parameter design (see Fig. 1) is running the experiment. This experiment was
conducted using the hardware listed as follows:
3. Experimental design
CNC Mill: Fadal VMC-40 vertical machining center.
3.1. Orthogonal array and experimental factors Surface roughness measurement device: Federal Pocketsurf Stylus Profilome-
ter (measures Ra in in.; stylus travel 0.1 in./2.54 mm).
Following the procedure described in Fig. 1, the first step in the Taguchi Space heater: 1500 W Honeywell Quick Heat Ceramic Heater (small forced-
method is to select a proper orthogonal array. The standardized Taguchi-based air space heater with thermostat with thermal protection devices for safety).
experimental design, a L9 (34 ) orthogonal array described in Peace [4], was used Thermometer: Taylor digital thermometer #1420 (digital thermometer with
in this study and is shown in Table 1. This basic design makes use of up to four probe, range includes 50120 F/1048.9 C) (Taylor Instruments).
control factors, with three levels each. A total of nine experimental runs must Cutting tool inserts: APKT 160408R coated carbide inserts (Ingersoll Cutting
be conducted, using the combination of levels for each control factor (AD) Tools).

Table 2
Parameters, codes, and level values used for orthogonal array
Parameter Code Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Control factors
Spindle speed, rpm A 1500 2500 3500
Feed rate, ipm (mmpm) B 20 (508) 30 (762) 40 (1016)
Depth of cut, in (mm) C 0.060 (1.52) 0.080 (2.03) 0.100 (2.54)
Noise factors
Tool wear X None Light wear
Temperature range, F ( C) Y 6575 (18.323.9) 95100 (3537.8)
Response variable
Surface roughness, Ra (in.)
236 J.Z. Zhang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239

Table 3
Completed orthogonal array
Outer noise array

X 1 1 2 2
Y 1 2 1 2

Run Inner control factor array N1 N2 N3 N4 R

a s s2
A B C

1 1 1 1 35.5 47 71.5 58.5 53.13 15.43 238.23 34.77

2 1 2 2 59.5 58.5 51 69 59.50 7.38 54.50 35.54
3 1 3 3 68.5 56.5 96.5 133 88.63 34.00 1156.06 39.41
4 2 1 2 26 23.5 82.5 53.6 46.40 27.66 765.21 34.36
5 2 2 3 31 40 56 26 38.25 13.18 173.58 32.02
6 2 3 1 45 41 58.5 49 48.38 7.50 56.23 33.77
7 3 1 3 23.5 26.5 76.5 30.5 39.25 25.00 624.92 33.03
8 3 2 1 24.5 22.5 51 56.5 38.63 17.63 310.73 32.37
9 3 3 2 31.5 38 82 48 49.88 22.47 504.73 34.57

A B C

R
a effects
Level 1 67.08 46.26 46.71
Level 2 44.34 45.46 51.93
Level 3 42.58 62.29 55.38

A B C

effects
Level 1 36.57 34.05 33.64
Level 2 33.38 33.31 34.82
Level 3 33.32 35.92 34.82

Tool holder: Fadal VNE90-1250C 3-insert mill with 1.25 in. (31.75 mm) cut
diameter (for above inserts).
Surface table: polished granite surface for more stable and accurate surface
roughness measurements.
Microsoft Excel and JMP software packages for charting data and statistical
analysis.
The 36 experiments were cut in a random sequence to better eliminate any
other invisible factors that might also contribute to the surface roughness. The
high temperature was created through heating up the air inside the machine
chamber by the heater to the defined temperature and maintaining the tempera-
ture 5 min. The light tool wear on the inserts was created by lightly grinding the
cutting edge with a small abrasive grinder. It is hard to control the degree of tool
wear when grinding the inserts. A microscope was used to observe and measure
the flank wears on the inserts to control the wear situation of the three inserts
as similar as possible. Because the difficulty still existed due to the researchers
inability to reproduce the exactly same tool wear situation, tool wear was con-
sidered a noise factor in this study. A simple NC program was written with
different cutting conditions specified to have the Fadal machine face mill the top
surface of 3/4 1 1/2 3 in. (19.1 38.1 76.2 mm) aluminum blocks. After
each cut, the surface roughness was measured on the surface table with the stylus
profilometer. Three fixed spots on each milled surface, one in the middle and
the other two on the edge, were used to measure the surface roughness of the
cut, and the mean of the three readings was recorded in the orthogonal array. A
diagram of measurement points were shown in Fig. 2.
Table 3, along with the additional parameters of the expanded
orthogonal array. The individual surface roughness measure-
ments are noted as N1N4 for each run in the array. A final
column has been added to this array, to indicate the signal-to-
noise (S/N) ratio, which is calculated as follows:
  
1
= 10 log ( yi2 ) (1)
n
where is the S/N ratio, yi the individual surface roughness
measurements in columns N1N4, n the number of combined
noise factors; in this case, n = 4.
Also added to this array are the standard deviation (s),
variance (s2 ), and the mean (R a ) of the surface roughness mea-
surements, which are used to verify the performance of the
calculated S/N ratio. This type of experiment, in which a smaller
response variable is desirable, should produce S/N ratios that
increase as the variance and means decrease.

4. Results and analysis

The procedures after the experimental runs are analyzing

data and identifying the optimal levels for all the control factors
(see Fig. 1). The results of the surface roughness measurements
and their average value (in. R a ) of each sample are shown in Fig. 2. Three spots for taking surface roughness measurements.
 J.Z. Zhang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239 237

Table 4 Table 6
T-test for effect on surface roughness of alternating between two sets of inserts ANOVA analysis for the effect of feed rate on surface finish
with different wear
Source d.f. Sum of square Mean square F ratio Prob > b
No wear Light wear
Sp 2 2169.367 1084.68 2.0575 0.1439
Mean 38.80556 63.86667 Error 33 17397.155 527.19
Variance 206.0629 611.4612 Cumulative total 35 19566.522
Observations 18 18
d.f. 17
t stat 4.51184
t critical one-tail 1.739607
P(T t) one-tail 0.000154

A visual examination found that the noise factors may affect

surface roughness because of the rather large standard deviations
across each row of the experimental runs. The changing trend
of surface roughness brought by different inserts sets with and
without tool wear (coded as outer noise array factor X1 and X2)
is consistent from experimental run #1 through #9. No matter in
what cutting parameter condition, the samples cut by the inserts
with wear always result in larger surface roughness values. On
the other hand, no such a consistent trend was found among
the samples collected by varying machine chamber temperature,
which is coded as outer noise array factor Y1 and Y2. In order to
present a more rigorous analysis, two comparison t-tests were
made to see if the differences associated with the two noise
factors were significant.
The t-test for the effect of tool wear on surface roughness
in Table 4 shows that tool wear, as would be expected, has
significantly reduced the quality of the milled surface from
the mean surface roughness of 38.8 in. (0.99 m) to 63.9
(in. 1.62 m) (p < .001). As shown in Table 5, the differ-
ence between surface roughness in high temperature (mean
48.8 in./1.24 m) compared to the one in normal temperature
(mean 53.9 in./1.37 m) was not significant (p > .05). There-
fore, it cannot be concluded from this experiment that the
temperature significantly affects the quality of the finished sur-
face. In this study, only 5 min was maintained for keeping the
high temperature, and more time may need to be maintained for
future study to investigate the impact of environmental temper-
ature.
A non-formal examination of the effects introduced by the
control factors found that the mean surface roughness reduced
greatly when feed rate was set from level 3 to level 2, how-
ever, the surface roughness almost did not change when feed
Table 5
T-test for effect on surface roughness of normal (70 5 F) and high (95100 F)
room temperature
Normal temperature High temperature
(6575 F) (95100 F)
Fig. 3. Pair means comparisons for feed rate.
rate was set from level 1 to level 2. The ANOVA analysis illus-
trated in Table 6 and pair means comparisons in Fig. 3 for feed
rate shows that surface roughness difference caused by varying
feed rate was not significant as the other studies found [12].
This would seem to imply that the noise factors could possibly
add uncertain interactions by varying the tool wear factor. A
complete study including the interaction effects among factors
would open another research agenda with more experimental
runs. But this is beyond the scope of the current research set-up
and research purpose.
As for the effect of spindle speed and depth of cut on surface
roughness, there is not a completely consistent conclusion in
previous studies. For example, Ghani et al. [6] found that high
cutting speed and low depth of cut in addition to the main fac-
tor of low feed rate would improve surface finish for machining
hardened steel (AISI H13) with a TiN coated P10 carbide insert.
Bouzid et al. [7] found a high value of cutting speed used with
a small value of feed rate would improve the roughness of the
machined Duplex stainless steel surface. They also found that an
optimal value of depth of cut was more dependent on the mate-
rial characteristics and the machine dynamics. For this study,
the ANOVA analysis shown in Table 7 and pair means compar-
isons in Fig. 4 for spindle speed shows that spindle speed was a
significant factor affecting surface roughness, and the setting of
spindle speed at 3500 rpm produced the smallest surface rough-
ness value. The pair means comparison in Fig. 5 for depth of cut

Mean 53.91667 48.75556 Table 7

Variance 502.3897 633.5344 ANOVA analysis for the effect of spindle speed on surface finish
Observations 18 18
Source d.f. Sum of square Mean square F ratio Prob > b
d.f. 17
t stat 1.086147 Sp 2 4466.367 2233.18 4.8804 0.0139
t critical one-tail 1.739607 Error 33 15100.155 457.58
P(T t) one-tail 0.146288 Cumulative total 35 19566.522
238 J.Z. Zhang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239
Fig. 4. Pair means comparisons for spindle levels.
Fig. 5. Pair means comparisons for depth levels.
clearly shows that depth of cut was not a significant factor in this
study; however, the milling operations at low depth of cut consis-
tently provided a low surface roughness during this study. The
surface roughness changing trend revealed in the experimen-
tal data provides a direction to determine the optimum cutting
condition.
Fig. 6. R
a and S/N ratio effects for each control factor.
5. Determination of the optimum cutting condition
The (mean response variable) effect table under the array in
Table 3 indicates the mean of the response variable means for
each level of each control factor. This specifies the mean surface
roughness value that each level of each control factor produced
during this experiment. The S/N ratio effect table under the array
in Table 3 indicates the mean of the S/N ratio values for each
level of each control factor. Fig. 6 shows the surface roughness
(Ra ) and S/N ratio effects from Table 3.
In this study, it is the-smaller-the-better case, which means
the smallest surface roughness would be the ideal situation. Also
the largest S/N ratio, reflecting the best response given the noise
in the machine set-up system, would be the ideal situation. This
is the criteria employed in this study to determine the optimal
cutting condition.
By following the criteria of smaller surface roughness and
larger S/N ratio, the graphs in Fig. 6 was used to determine
the optimal set of parameters from this experimental design.
The control factor of spindle speed (A) at level 3 (3500 rpm)
provided the best result. Similarly, the control factor of feed
rate (B) at level 2 (30 ipm) provided the best result. Although
depth of cut (C) was not a significant factor impacting surface
roughness result, of the three set-up conditions, depth of cut at
level 1 provided the lowest surface roughness and highest S/N
ratio. Therefore depth of cut at level 1 (0.06 in./1.52 mm) was
selected for the optimal cutting condition. The criteria of the
lowest response and highest S/N ratio were followed and there
are no conflicts in this study in determining the optimal spin-
dle speed, feed rate, and depth of cut. Therefore, the optimized
combination of levels for the three control factors from the anal-
ysis so far was A3-B2-C1. In addition, this study supports the
contention that the insert without wear (X1) will generate a bet-
ter surface finish. The statistical analysis indicated that there
was no significant difference when temperature was set as nor-
mal or high level, thus, temperature set-up would not matter in
 J.Z. Zhang et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 184 (2007) 233239
Table 8
The results of the confirmation run
Sample # Ra (in.)
1 24.0
2 25.0
3 24.5
4 22.0
5 23.0
6 25.5
7 19.0
8 25.5
9 18.5
10 20.5
11 23.0
12 22.0
13 25.0
14 25.5
15 21.0
Mean 22.9
the confirmation run. For the researchers convenience, in the
confirmation run temperature was set-up as normal temperature
(Y1). The optimized levels of the three parameters A3-B2-C1
(X1, Y1) were included in the confirmation run.
6. Conrmation run
After the optimal levels of all the control factors were identi-
fied, the last step in Taguchi parameter design is conducting the
confirmation run (see Fig. 1). The combination of the optimal
levels of all the factors should produce the optimal magnitude
of surface roughness (the smallest Ra ). This conclusion must be
further supported through the confirmation runs. Fifteen samples
were cut under the optimal parameter set-up in the study for the
purpose of confirmation run. The optimal levels for the control-
lable factors were spindle speed 3500 rpm, feed rate 30 in./min
(762 mm/min), depth of cut 0.06 in (1.52 mm). In terms of the
experimental result, the optimal levels for the noise factors in
confirmation run were no tool wear condition and normal tem-
perature range. Table 8 shows the results of the confirmation run.
Compared with the experiment results in Table 3, the
mean surface roughness of the 15 confirmation samples
22.9 in. (0.58 m), which was very close to the smallest value
(23.5 in./0.60 m) of surface roughness in Table 3. Therefore,
the confirmation run indicated that the selection of the optimal
levels for all the parameters produced the best surface roughness.
7. Conclusions
In this study the optimal cutting condition for face milling
was selected by varying cutting parameters through the Taguchi
239
parameter design method. With the L9 (34 ) orthogonal array, a
total of 36 experimental runs, covering three main factors each
at three levels and two noise factors each at two levels, indi-
cated that the Taguchi parameter design was an efficient way of
determining the optimal cutting parameters for surface finish.
The experimental results indicate that in this study the effects of
spindle speed and feed rate on surface were larger than depth of
cut for milling operation. In addition, one of the noise factors,
tool wear, was found to be statistically significant. The surface
finish achievement of the confirmation runs under the optimal
cutting parameters indicated that of the parameter settings used
in this study, those identified as optimal through Taguchi param-
eter design were able to produce the best surface roughness in
this milling operation. This was accomplished with a relatively
small number of experimental runs, given the number of control
and noise factors, suggesting that Taguchi parameter design is an
efficient and effective method for optimizing surface roughness
in a milling operation.
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