Spotting the key variables using Shainin’s Variables Search Design

In the quest for continuous quality improvement for both products and processes, design of experiments based on Shainin’s Variables Search is still playing a pivotal role among engineers and quality control practitioners. Briefly describes the Variables Search Designs formulated and promoted by Dorian Shainin for identifying the most critical variables which influence the process performance. In order to illustrate the potential of this powerful method, a simple paper helicopter experiment was carried out by the author. The results of the study have shown that Shainin’s Variables Search Design is a powerful tool for identifying the key process variables and therefore should be utilised by the engineering fraternity in manufacturing organisations as a problem‐solving tool.