Innovation via engineering and statistical knowledge integration

This chapter shows the strategic role that a systematic approach to planning for a designed industrial experiment plays in technological process innovation. Guidelines already proposed in the literature emphasizing the pre-experimental planning phase are customized and applied in a case study concerning the laser drilling process of a combustion chamber in aerospace industry. The team approach is the real driving force for pre-experimental activities; it enables the integration of engineering and statistical knowledge, catalyzes process innovation and, moreover, it allows a virtuous cycle of sequential learning to be put into action. The innovative technological results obtained in the first screening experimental phase are presented. Since these results arise from a sound systematic approach, they enable a future experimental phase on optimization and robustness to be planned. The case study of a laser drilling process provides a best-practice guide to synergic collaboration and partnership between academic statisticians and industrial practitioners; it was developed by AVIO, an aerospace company at the leading edge of propulsion technology.