Comparing experimental design strategies for quality improvement with minimal changes to factor levels

Abstract

The ‘small factor change’ problem, where an experimental design strategy is used to find a certain amount of improvement in a response while changing the factor levels as little as possible, is addressed. Using a recently developed test bed for response surfaces, we have simulated a broad range of response surface functions and collected empirical results on the performance of seven experimental design strategies when confronted with this problem. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.