Jiju Antony - Design of Experiments for Engineers and Scientists, Second Edition

Design of Experiments (DOE) is a powerful technique used for both exploring new processes and gaining increased knowledge of existing processes, followed by optimising these processes for achieving world-class performance. My involvement in promoting and training in the use of DOE dates back to the mid-1990s. There are plenty of books available in the market today on this subject written by classic statisticians, although the majority of them are better suited to other statisticians than to run-of-the-mill industrial engineers and business managers with limited mathematical and statistical skills.

DOE never has been a favourite technique for many of todays engineers and managers in organisations due to the number crunching involved and the statistical jargon incorporated into the teaching mode by many statisticians. This book is targeted to people who have either been intimidated by their attempts to learn about DOE or who have never appreciated the true potential of DOE for achieving breakthrough improvements in product quality and process efficiency.

This book gives a solid introduction to the technique through a myriad of practical examples and case studies. The second edition of the book has incorporated two new chapters and both cover the latest developments on the topic of DOE. Readers of this book will develop a sound understanding of the theory of DOE and practical aspects of how to design, analyse and interpret the results of a designed experiment. Throughout this book, the emphasis is on the simple but powerful graphical tools available for data analysis and interpretation. All of the graphs and figures in this book were created using Minitab version 15.0 for Windows.

I sincerely hope that practising industrial engineers and managers as well as researchers in academic world will find this book useful in learning how to apply DOE in their own work environment. The book will also be a useful resource for people involved in Six Sigma training and projects related to design optimisation and process performance improvements. In fact, I have personally observed that the number of applications of DOE in non-manufacturing sectors has increased significantly because of the methodology taught to Six Sigma professionals such as Six Sigma Green Belts and Black Belts.

The second edition has a chapter dedicated to DOE for non-manufacturing processes. As a mechanical engineer, I was not convinced about the application of DOE in the context of the service industry and public sector organisations including Higher Education. I have included a simple case study showing the power of DOE in a university setting. I firmly believe that DOE can be applied to any industrial setting, although there will be more challenges and barriers in the non-manufacturing sector compared to traditional manufacturing companies.

I hope that this book inspires readers to get into the habit of applying DOE for problem-solving and process troubleshooting. I strongly recommend that readers of this book continue on a more advanced reference to learn about topics which are not covered here. I am indebted to many contributors and gurus for the development of various experimental design techniques, especially Sir Ronald Fisher, Plackett and Burman, Professor George Box, Professor Douglas Montgomery, Dr Genichi Taguchi and Dr Dorian Shainin.