17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
some interesting cases but hardly a scientific method, March 12, 2001
This review is from: The Mahalanobis-Taguchi System (Hardcover)
this is not a pretty book, either visually (ugly typesetting) or content. The biggest merit is it's printed on recycled paper. otherwise, it would be a bigger waste of trees. Mc-Graw's standard seems to have gone downhill.
Some examples are quite intesreting. however, this book should really be called "Case Studies by Mahalanobis-Taguchi System" cause it really does not tell you much about the methodogy, its limitations, and its statistical basis. also it's assumptions has never been clearly stated. that is not a scientic method. my guess is linearity & continuity of the system. (i.e., no singularity of the configuration space of all variables) so the quality control studty can be reduced significantly.
Furthermore, there's no bibliography of good references about the method, except the incestuous self-referencing.
I also do not recommend the other book on Taguchi method by Dr. Taguchi et. al.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dr. James Kowalick, Consultant, October 11, 2010
This review is from: The Mahalanobis-Taguchi System (Hardcover)
This book (The Mahalanobis Taguchi System) is worth its weight in gold to the right readers. Its chief value is that it presents a wide range of different types of applications in the form of case studies - each with its own `tricks' and techniques. It also reveals the existence of a multi-dimensional system tool which is far superior to any contemporary multi-dimensional tool in several ways. Unfortunately, what descriptions there are in this book about `how' to conduct a Mahalanobis-Taguchi `experiment' are poorly presented or absent.
However, for someone who has already made the effort to learn and apply the Mahalanobis-Taguchi approach, the book serves not only as a primer, but also as an advanced-techniques mentor.
Using this book's contents and the contents of other publications, I have been able to very effectively apply MTS to several diverse areas, where pattern-recognition was the objective. The applications included:
* Marketing - Here we examined the market for a huge product used by mothers for young children. MTS was able to decisively discriminate between mothers who regularly purchased one brand, from mothers who purchased another brand. Furthermore, we identified several dozen chief characteristics of both groups of mothers. The results were invaluable for future marketing and advertising campaigns.
* Loyalty Programs - Here we were able to determine the key variables responsible for keeping current customers loyal, as well as the variables which were important to competitors' loyalty programs. MTS did this by considering not only the numerical values of the variables, but by considering their correlation structures as well.
* The Golf Swing - We applied MTS to the golf swing of excellent golfers and to beginning golfers, determining which biomechanical variables contributed to a golfer's ability to A) hit the ball straight towards the intended target, every time, B) maximize the range of each ball, without compromising down-range, side-to-side dispersion. This experiment took only two hours to conduct. We employed a system which measured biomechanics variables at every point in the swing, and we measured over 40 ball characteristics from impact all the way to the ball-landing point. The result was a vastly improved swing (more consistent, significantly reduced down-range side-to-side dispersion, and longer range).
* Equities Trading - We applied MTS to develop highly reliable buy and sell indicators. Five dozen variables were initially considered, but we were able to reduce the number of variables to a much smaller number. The system works well.
Overall, the system described in this book not only helped me to better-apply MTS to various pattern-recognition systems - it also served as an `idea kernel' for applying MTS to a host of other application areas. The book is definitely not for everyone, but it is a real gem.
On the downside: Some case studies are poorly explained - and yes, there are several obvious technical mistakes (primarily in describing procedures) throughout the book. I believe that this was a case of poor technical quality control in taking the book through its various stages on the way to a final printing.
Best wishes!
James Kowalick
Consultant
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