Designed Experiments

Posted on November 28, 2006  Comments (4)

One-Factor-at-a-Time Versus Designed Experiments by Veronica Czitrom:

The advantages of designed experiments over [One Factor at a Time] OFAT experiments are illustrated using three real engineering OFAT experiments, and showing how in each case a designed experiment would have been better. This topic is important because many scientists and engineers continue to perform OFAT experiments.

I still remember, as a child, asking what my father was going to be teaching the company he was going to consult with for a few days. He said he was going to teach them about using designed factorial experiments. I said, but you explained that to me and I am just a kid? How can you be teaching adults that? Didn’t they learn it in school? The paper provides some examples showing why OFAT experimentation is not as effective as designed multi-factor experiments.

Related: Design of Experiments articlesStatistics for Experimenters (2nd Edition)Design of Experiments blog posts

4 Responses to “Designed Experiments”

  1. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
    January 28th, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

    “…even if that means ignoring complex interactions and contexts, as well as the fact that the whole may be more than, or just different from, the sum of its parts. This is what we mean by reductionist science…”

  2. Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Controlled Experiments for Software Solutions
    August 17th, 2009 @ 9:18 pm

    I firmly believe that applied statistics-based experiments are under-appreciated by businesses (and, for that matter, business schools)…

  3. Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Learning Design of Experiments with Paper Helicopters
    October 11th, 2009 @ 9:00 am

    Dr. George E.P. Box wrote a great paper on Teaching Engineers Experimental Design With a Paper Helicopter that can be used to learn principles of experimental design…

  4. William G. Hunter Award 2008: Ronald Does » Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog
    January 20th, 2015 @ 10:57 pm

    The first advice I received from my new colleagues was to read the book by Box, Hunter and Hunter…

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