A Graph-Aided Method for Planning Two-Level Experiments When Certain Interactions Are Important

Abstract

In planning a fractional factorial experiment prior knowledge may suggest that some interactions are potentially important and should therefore be estimated free of the main effects. In this article, we propose a graph-aided method to solve this problem for two-level experiments. First, we choose the defining relations for a 2 n–k design according to a goodness criterion such as the minimum aberration criterion. Then we construct all of the nonisomorphic graphs that represent the solutions to the problem of simultaneous estimation of main effects and two-factor interactions for the given defining relations. In each graph a vertex represents a factor and an edge represents the interaction between the two factors. For the experiment planner, the job is simple: Draw a graph representing the specified interactions and compare it with the list of graphs obtained previously. Our approach is a substantial improvement over Taguchi's linear graphs.