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 print 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 have 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, its 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 on in later chapters.
  • Chapters 5-7 introduce one-way and multi-way classification designs, ANOVA, and multiple comparisons tests, etc.
  • 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.
  • There are introductions in the course presentations notes to some topics that are outside the book’s scope.

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: