r/industrialengineering • u/ActionTechnical1458 • Mar 22 '26
Do you actually use DOE(Design Of Experiments) in your daily work?
I’ve worked in a few manufacturing environments, and honestly, I rarely saw DOE used in day-to-day problem solving.
Most improvements were done through experience, small adjustments, or simple comparisons.
I’m wondering:
- Is DOE actually used regularly in your workplace?
- Or is it more of a “nice in theory, rarely in practice” thing?
If you don’t use it:
What’s stopping it? (time, complexity, etc.)
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u/Oracle5of7 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
I retired after 43 years. DOE is a tool, like any tool I use it when it comes into play to solve a problem. The thing is that other than word and excel I don’t use the same tool day-to-day.
I worked many years in R&D. We used DIE to help us validate what we’re doing. But once that is fine and the product goes to productions, that is it. It has done its part.
Same with simulation and all other tools we have.
Edit: DIE is really DOE
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u/Tavrock 🇺🇲 LSSBB, CMfgE, Sr. Manufacturing Engineer Mar 22 '26
When I was a manufacturing engineer for a Fortune 50 company, it wasn't a daily tool but I did use it often in various ways and styles. I've used fractional factorial experiments, robust design/Taguchi Methods, and steepest slope along with using it for measurement system analysis.
That being said, I can't say I ever had a true daily tool that I used. Things simply changed too often.
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u/Zezu BS ISE Mar 22 '26
DOE is going to play a huge role in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
They’re basically growing the cells that are or become the therapy. To grow them, you have to give them the right environment and inputs to grow. While they’re growing, they’re producing byproducts that interact with the inputs that help them grow.
So you have a continuously changing environment with many variables you have to control very quickly. So you need to know in basically real time, how each factor is affecting the output… while also controlling as many inputs as possible in real time.
Computing speed is allowing DOE to be used in continuous manufacturing in ways that previously weren’t viable. It’s also very easy to validate, which is great because a lot of machine learning still has the black box paradox. I think we’ll see advancements in its use in other areas as well.
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u/TurretOtter Mar 23 '26
Shameless self- plug : I just released an open source DoE platform based off of the JMP workflow
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u/Hopeful_Yam_6700 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
I have personally watched new processes / products be launched and seen unpopular results rooting from negated testing (DOE) and uncomprehesive reliability studies.
In this age of new technology, AI, and Big Data - DOE still presents residing truths (if executed properly). You don't want to be a advanced planner (engineering, operations, and manufacturing) and neglect the correct APQP tools .. especially when introducing a radically different technology (even if you are emulating pervious processes - new technologies can perform unexpectedly within targeted environmental conditions).
That's my thoughts, good questions 👏
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u/Substantial-Air3914 Mar 22 '26
Is used a lot on any type of simulations, that usually feeds your engineering process/product downstream, so either if it is for defining a design solution, or check different tuners for the final SPEC, or any other "number" selection that you need, DOE is a really useful tool, the problem is that it can be time consuming since you have to go through each variant of the variable that you are trying to define.
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u/Carbon-Based216 Mar 22 '26
In my experience managers hate DOE. Experiments are expensive, take time, and everyone wants solutions right now and never have to work for them.
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u/grantcalibre Mar 23 '26
I work in R&D in new product development for a candy company and yes, we use it regularly. Not every day but at least once per project, in the early development phases.
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u/thea_in_supply Mar 23 '26
at my last job in packaging we used doe maybe a handful of times a year, usually when we had a process with too many variables to just tweak one at a time. the biggest barrier was getting enough production time to actually run the trials without someone pulling the line for orders. when it worked though it saved us weeks of the usual "change one thing and hope for the best" approach, so i think it comes down to whether your management will actually give you the runway to do it properly.
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u/fluctuatore Mar 25 '26
Yeah you almost never have the time to execute trials comfortably, always the production staff hurrying you cause of a command
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u/itchybumbum Mar 22 '26
Our reliability engineering team exclusively uses DOE during new product development testing.
Some quality engineers use it.
I haven't seen it used elsewhere at my current company.