This paper has focused on the Optimization of the cutting parameters for urning operation based on the Taguchi method. Four cutting parameters. nemely, cutting speed, feed depth of cut and nose radius are optimized with consideration of the surface roughness. The design and analysis of experiments are conducted to study the performance characteristic. The effects of these parameters on the surface roughness have been investigated using signal-to-noise(S/N) ratio and analy-sis of variance(ANOVA). The experiments have been performed using coated tungsten carbide inserts without any cutting fluid. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.