Planning, analyzing and optimizing experiments

Research and Development (R&D) encompasses all the innovative activities of organizations engaged in the development of new products (recycled materials, hardware, software, services) or enhancement of existing ones. In the US, the Research & Development cost to revenue ratio averages 3.5% but reaches even higher levels of up to 40%. Research & Development applies scientific methods with iterative and cyclical processes through which information is constantly updated and replaced, using the Experimenting (Design of experiments, DOE). The experimenting is an empirical way to arbitrate competing models or hypotheses in order to test existing theories or new hypotheses. The experimenting not only contains the design as it is commonly thought but includes the sequential stages: creating designs, analyzing and constructing the plans of the experiments, optimizing the plans of the experiments and optimizing the response of the experiments. Experimental designs include different types, but today, factor designs, responsive surface designs, mixture design, and Taguchi designs are mostly used. This paper demonstrates the application of the methodology of experimentation with the creation, analysis, development of experimental plans, optimization of the experimental plan, and optimization of the experimentation response, in one specific example of a chemical reaction from practice, using the computer program Minitab®