Minitab DOE Tutorial

Please follow the directions given below and prepare a document with all the solutions and
supporting materials. This is just a review of the problems we covered in class, using Minitab to
solve them. You can hand your report in at the final exam (May 4, 1pm).

1 One-Way ANOVA
Dataset for this section is in the One-Way worksheet of the DOE_Data.xls file. They are the
bonding strengths of three different types of adhesives, A, B, and C, on paper in a pulp and paper
mill. The adhesives were randomly applied to four batches each.
You can copy to a Minitab worksheet the data for each adhesive in columns with the headings
on the first shaded row. To perform ANOVA analysis on the experimental data, do as follows.
1. Stat ->Anova -> One-Way (unstacked)
2. In the response window add the columns with heading A, B, C
3. Click on store residuals
4. Click on store fits
5. The default confidence level 95% should be sufficient to draw conclusions on the
pairwise differences between means
6. Click on Graphs and in the resulting pop-up window click on all the plots (Three in
one takes care of the three previous ones).
7. Click Ok and again Ok in the next window
Now you are ready to analyze your results. The Session window contains the ANOVA table,
where the P-value will indicate how confident you are that you can reject the null hypothesis of
equal effects of all treatments (in this example, all adhesive types).
Question 1: Can we conclude that there is a significant difference in the bonding strength
resulting from the different adhesive types?
The Session window also provides 95% confidence intervals for the response under each
adhesive type.
Question 2: Can we conclude that there is a significant difference between adhesive A and B?
Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the difference to double check.
The plots provide a visual tool to validate the assumptions of the model:

Normality assumption
o Normal probability plot of residuals

Equal variances at each factor level

o Plot residuals against each factors fitted value

Independence of observations
o Plot residuals against run order

Question 3: Look at the plots and discuss whether the model is appropriate, that is, the
assumptions hold reasonably well. Observe that since we only have 4 data points per sample, we
cannot expect to have a very good fit. We are looking for very wild departures here. The model
is robust to small departures from normality and from the other assumptions.
Minitab does not automatically provide a run chart of residuals against run order when you give
data unstacked (since you are not providing the run order), so the third assumption cannot be
tested there. In this experiment, it was found that the run order was key (see picture below) and
there seemed to be a different behavior for each run of three. The experiments were run by first
doing replication 1 of the three adhesives, then replication 2 and then 3, each on a different batch
of paper.

Residual

2
1
0
-1

10 11 12

-2
Run Number

2 Blocking Balanced ANOVA

Comparing results within each batch of paper may thus provide more accuracy to our analysis.
Therefore, we would like to block for this factor and run an ANOVA test using the two factors:
adhesive type and batch. To run the ANOVA with more than one factor we need the data to
be stacked into a single response column and then have one column for each factor indicating the
level it was set at when that response was taken. For that purpose:
1. In Minitab, do Data -> Stack -> Columns -> in pop-up window Select columns A, B, C,
and Store Data in Current Worksheet in desired column with heading Bonding (i.e.,
type Bonding in the given space); click store subscripts, and create a column headed
Adhesive for that purpose (i.e. to store the adhesive types corresponding to each of the
observations that will now appear in a single column).
2. We are still missing the info on our blocking factor, the paper batch. We will need to
create a new column headed Batch that indicates what batch of paper was used in each
response variable measurement. In this case each adhesive type was run first on batch 1,
then 2, then 3, then 4. Thus, the Batch column is 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,.2,3,4.
3. Stat -> ANOVA -> Balanced Anova
4. In the pop-up window, select Bonding column as Response, and select (or directly
write) Adhesive and Batch in the Model
5. To analyze the residuals and check model assumptions, click on Graphs and check the
Four in one box.

Question 4: Has the blocking improved your experiment? Observe the error (MSE) and compare
with that in the original One-Way ANOVA you run. Why is it smaller?
Look at the plot of residuals versus observation (or run) order, which is what made us think of
blocking when we initially performed the one-way ANOVA analysis. Observe that the value
of the residuals now seems more random, with no particular pattern, validating the assumption of
independence of observations.

3 Two-Factor ANOVA Balanced ANOVA with Interaction

An article in Industrial Quality Control (1956, pp. 5-8) describes an experiment to investigate
the effect of glass type and phosphor type on the brightness of a television tube. The response
measured is the current necessary (in microamps) to obtain a specified brightness level. The
data are given in worksheet Two-Factor of file DOE_Data.xls.
Copy the data to a Minitab worksheet making sure that the headings for the columns (1,2,3)
are in the shaded heading row.
1. In Minitab, do Data -> Stack -> Columns -> in pop-up window Select columns 1, 2, 3,
and Store Data in Current Worksheet in desired column (to which we will refer to as the
Measurement column); click store subscripts, and create a column headed Phosphor
for that purpose (i.e. to store the phosphor types corresponding to each of the
observations that will now appear in a single column).
2. We are still missing the info on our second factor, the glass type. We will need to create a
new column headed Glass that indicates what glass type was used in each response
variable measurement. In this case each the first 3 observations for each phosphor type
are on glass type 1, the next three on glass type 2, and the next three on glass type 3. Thus,
the Glass column is 1,1,1,2,2,2, repeated three times.
3. Stat -> ANOVA -> Balanced Anova
4. In the pop-up window, select Measurement column as Response, and select
Phosphor and Glass in the Model, plus add Phosphor*Glass (just by writing in the
Model window) to indicate that the interaction needs to be considered.
5. To analyze the residuals and check model assumptions, click on Graphs and check the
Four in one box.
Question 5: Analyze the data and draw conclusions. Is the interaction effect significant? Are the
effects of phosphor type and glass type significant?
You can check the interaction effect visually with the interactions plot:
1. Stat -> ANOVA -> Interactions Plot
2. In the pop-up window, select Measurement column as Response, and select (or directly
write) Phosphor and Glass in the Model.
3. You can hit Ok to get a graph of the measurements against phosphor type for each
glass type. For further analysis, you can check the box Display Full Interaction Plot
Matrix, before hitting ok; then you get the same interactions plot, plus its counterpart
where measurements are plotted against glass type for each phosphor type.