Other Topics in Product Development and Optimization

This chapter extends the topic of design and analysis of factorial designs by introducing two classes of designs particularly suited to fitting and analyzing response surfaces and for optimizing response variables: central composite designs (CCDs) and Box‐Behnken designs. The main focus of a statistical analysis of a CCD is to study in depth how several factors contribute to the explanation of a response variable and understand how the factors interact with each other. Important objective is optimization, the search for those combinations of factor levels that are linked to desirable values of the response. In the development of a new polymeric membrane, the research team aims to maximize the product's elasticity. The scientists decide that the region of exploration in the search for factor levels that maximize the elasticity of the product should be around for the two additives and for the temperature.