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For a long time, the industries of computer, communication and consumer electronic are the core industries in Taiwan; they are usually categorized as 3C industry. Harnesses / connectors are very important parts used in 3C products; hence, harness / connector industry is very important in Taiwan. Most of harness / connector makers in Taiwan are SMEs (small and medium enterprises). These makers have limited sources and business capacities usually. They shall enhance their own competitive capacities to face challenges in supply chain. Requirements of customer are getting more rigid, the progress is a challenge to SMEs. Taguchi method is an excellent tool of DOE (Design of experiment); it can effectively and efficiently help SMEs to design and improve products to meet customer requirements. Temperature rising test is used to evaluate connector safety, the key factors of temperature rising for harness / connector are also very important when connector/ harness applicators to design power circuit into their products. Connector / harness makers shall find out the key factors of the temperature rising, and reduce the rising in design and they may provide recommendations to their customers. Unfortunately, it is pretty difficult to apply regular DOE for the test since there are many factors and the test is time-consuming, furthermore, making samples for the test is not easy as well. This study applies Taguchi method to find out key temperature rising factors of connectors / harness. According to the study result, the key factors are (1) current, (2) wire AWG, (3) wire length and (4) hole position. Besides, this study generalizes a helpful procedure to apply Taguchi method for harness / connector makers.
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