On the generation of cost effective response surface designs

Run order consideration for mixed factorial, fractional factorial and confounded factorial have been studied by several authors in depth, but is lacking for Response Surface Designs (RSDs) except the results obtained by Quinlan and Lin (2015) for Plackett-Burman Design, a commonly used first order response surface design for screening purpose. Second Order Response Surface Designs (SORDs) are used to explore relationship between the response variable and the input variables and to find out the optimum input combinations to achieve a desired response. In this paper, we aim to find out optimal run orders with respect to minimizing level changes using a computer programme. Minimizing the level changes implies the minimization of experimental cost. Generation of four classes of designs viz., Plackett-Burman Design, Cost-effective Central Composite Design (CCD) with full factorial as well as fractional factorial points and Cost-effective Box Behnken Design (BBD) have been described through Macros developed using SAS IML.