In the present study, process optimization for thermal-sprayed STS316 coating has been performed using $L_9(3^4)$ orthogonal array and analysis of variance (ANOVA). STS316 coatings were fabricated by flame spray process on steel substrate, and the hardness test and microstructure observation of the coatings were studied. The results of hardness test were analyzed by ANOVA. The ANOVA results showed that the spray distance had the greatest effect on hardness of the coating, on the other hands, the effects of oxygen gas flow and spray distance were ignorable. From these results, the optimal combination of the flame spray parameters could be derived, and confirmation experiment was carried out to verify these derived results. The calculated hardness of the coatings by ANOVA was found to approximately close to that of confirmation experimental result. Thus, it was considered that design of experiments using orthogonal array and ANOVA was effective for process optimization of thermal-sprayed STS316 coating.