Design of Experiments with MINITAB
Paul Mathews*, 2004.

* ASQ Quality Press was the original publisher of the book but in 2025 I (Paul) reacquired all of the rights.

Acquiring Copies of the Book

  • There is a web link to the free pdf copy of the book below.
  • We can printed copies of the book if you need them. The printed books are soft-bound with a simple green cover.

Why I Wrote This Book

I wrote this book over a period of about 8 years to supplement the textbooks that I was teaching from. The particular problems I was trying to solve were:

  • The textbooks I was using didn’t have a good review of core statistical methods, especially for students who hadn’t ever or recently had a statistics course.
  • Notation varies from book to book. I wanted consistent notation from the introductory chapters through the advanced material.
  • Older books weren’t written with modern software in mind, so they carried an unnecessary level of detail about DOE calculations.
  • The majority of my customers and students use MINITAB so I wanted to include MINITAB-specific instructions.
  • I wanted to keep the scope of the book narrow. Montgomery’s book, Design and Analysis of Experiments, is one of my favorites; however, it’s scope is excessive with respect to the needs of students new to DOE methods. I highly recommend that after using DOE with MINITAB for an introductory course, students should continue their study with Montgomery, Box and Hunter, etc.

Organization of the Material

  • Chapters 1-3 provide a review of core graphing and statistical methods and introduce the use of MINITAB
  • Chapter 4 is largely qualitative. It provides an introduction to key DOE language and concepts that will be used and expanded in later chapters.
  • Chapters 5-7 introduce one-way and multi-way classification designs, ANOVA, and multiple comparisons tests.
  • Chapter 8 introduces linear regression and ANOVA general linear model.
  • Chapters 9-11 introduce two-level full-factorial and fractional-factorial designs, and response surface designs.
  • The book does not cover advanced topics like repeated measures designs, longitudinal designs, mixture experiments, Taguchi designs, etc. There are other excellent books available that cover those topics.

Table of Contents:

  • Chapter 1. Graphical Presentation of Data
  • Chapter 2. Descriptive Statistics
  • Chapter 3. Inferential Statistics
  • Chapter 4. DOE Language and Concepts
  • Chapter 5. Experiments for One-Way Classifications
  • Chapter 6. Experiments for Multi-Way Classifications
  • Chapter 7. Advanced ANOVA Topics
  • Chapter 8. Linear Regression
  • Chapter 9. Two-Level Factorial Designs
  • Chapter 10. Fractional Factorial Designs
  • Chapter 11. Response Surface Designs
  • Appendix of Statistical Tables

Design of Experiments with MINITAB Documents: