Introduction to Black Belt

Fractional Factorial Designs

Leaders designing the future

Learning objectives:

1. Understand fractional factorial designs and their purpose.

2. Conduct fractional experiments to test factors and levels that optimize the process.

Content
I. What are Fractional Factorial Designs?
II. When are they used?
III. Why are they used?
IV. Resolution
V. Exercise
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I. What are Fractional Factorial Designs?

A design of experiment in which only a fraction of the factorial treatments

are selected in order to study the effects of the factors while using the least
amount of experimental runs.

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 Fractional Factorial Designs

▪ It is likely that in the early stages of an investigation, we are interested in

studying several factors.

▪ To accomplish this, we need a strategy that helps us reduce the number of

experimental runs without loosing valuable results.

Fractional factorial designs!

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II. When they are used?

k
▪ In a full factorial design (2 ), as the number of factors
increases, so do the number of treatments.

▪ For example, if k = 6 factors, one replicate of a

general full factorial implies a total of 64 runs. If k= 7,
then there would be a total of 128 runs.

▪ In practice, it may not be reasonable or cost effective

to perform a large number of experimental runs.

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 Theory of Fractional Factorial Designs

The theory of fractional factorial designs is based on a hierarchical ordering of effects; the
main effects are most important, followed by double, triple and quadruple interactions.

Total Unignorable Ignorable

Design
Effects Effects Effects
k=2 3 3 0
k=3 7 6 1
k=4 15 10 5
k=5 31 15 16
k=6 63 21 42
k=7 127 28 99

It has been observed that for designs with 5 or more factors, k ≥ 5, the number of
insignificant factors is greater than the number of significant factors, which means that
these designs can be fractionated without loosing valuable information.
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Theory of Fractional Factorial Designs

▪ The first type of factorial design that generates a large amount of excess information is the 2 5
full factorial design.
▪ This design estimates 31 effects of which 15 are potentially important (i.e., the 5 main effects
and the 10 interactions between the factors). 16 effects consist of interactions between three
or more factors, which for practical purposes can be ignored.

Total Unignorable Ignorable

Design
Effects Effects Effects
k=2 3 3 0
k=3 7 6 1
k=4 15 10 5
k=5 31 15 16
k=6 63 21 42
k=7 127 28 99

2 5-1 fractional factorial designs can essentially obtain the same information as full 2k factorial
designs, but at half the experimental cost.
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 2k-p Fractional Factorial Designs

Number of factors

2 k-p Number of design generators

(size of the fraction)

Number of levels

▪ When the number of factors is 5 or more (even for designs with 2 levels) the amount
of experimental runs increases significantly.

▪ Fractional factorial designs are an alternative method for conducting experiments with
many variables using fewer runs.

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Half Fraction (p=1)

A 25-1 experimental design can be done as follows:

1 5-1
(25 ) = 2
2

You can fully estimate the 15 important effects and ignore the information regarding the
higher order interactions because these aren’t really important.

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 Half Fraction (p=1)

As an example, we will use a 23-1 experimental design (even though it isn’t recommended
to fractionate it).

2 3-1 = 22 = four experimental runs with 3 factors. This correspond to half of a full
factorial design with 8 runs:

3
1 3 2 3 -1
= (2 )(2 ) = 2
3-1
(2 ) =
2 2

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Which runs do you choose?

Run A B C AB AC BC ABC
1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 1 -1
2 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1
3 -1 1 -1 -1 1 -1 1
4 1 1 -1 1 -1 -1 -1
5 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1
6 1 -1 1 -1 1 -1 -1
7 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1 -1
8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

And how do you choose them?

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 Which runs do you choose?

Using a 23 design you can estimate 7 effects: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC and ABC. According to
their hierarchy, the least important effect is the triple interaction. The design generator is
based on the ABC contrast: The + signs make up the main fraction and the – signs make
up the alternate fraction.

A B C Contrast ABC
-1 -1 -1 -
1 -1 -1 +
-1 1 -1
Design Generator +
1 1 -1
A relationship between -
-1 -1 1
factors that is used to +
1 -1 1
generate a fractional -
-1 1 1
factorial design. -
1 1 1 +
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Which runs do you choose?

Fraction 1 Fraction 2
A B C A B C
1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
-1 1 -1 1 1 -1
-1 -1 1 1 -1 1
1 1 1 -1 1 1

▪ Using the tables, you can observe that for each factor, there are two + levels and two - levels.
▪ Moreover, by running either of the fractions you will not be able to estimate the effect of
ABC. We can say that ABC’s contrast is confounded or aliased with the rest of the data.

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 III. Why do we perform Fractional Factorial Design of Experiments?

▪ Fractional factorial designs are typically used for “screening experiments” because we
can study a few important factors among a relatively large number of factors using
fewer runs.

▪ Screening experiments are generally performed in the DMAIC Improve Phase.

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IV. Resolution

▪ Resolution is related to the level of confounding of effects when fractionating the

experiment.
▪ The resolution of an experiment is equal to the number of “letters” of the generator,
since it establishes the defining relationship of the experiment.
▪ Therefore, the fractions 23-1, 24-1 and 25-1, have III, IV and V resolutions respectively,
since the generators are composed of 3, 4 and 5 letters.

An experimental design with a higher resolution is better

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 Resolution
▪ The design resolution is the length of the shortest “word” in the design generator. The
resolution indicates the confounding pattern of the design.

▪ Resolution III Designs – The main effects are confounded with two-factor interactions.

▪ Resolution IV Designs – The main effects are confounded with three-factor interactions
and two-factor interactions are confounded with other two-factor interactions.
▪ Resolution V Designs – The main effects are confounded with four-factor interactions
and two-factor interactions are confounded with three-factor interactions.

Confounded/Aliased: Meaning they cannot be estimated separately from each other.

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Fractional Factorial Design Notation

The general notation for a fractional factorial design is:

k−p
2R
Where:
k = Number of factors
2 k-p = Number of runs
R = Design resolution (III, IV, V…)
Note:
If p = 1, then: Half fractional
If p = 2, then: Quarter fractional
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 Constructing 2 k ‐ 1 Half Fractional

The following is a 2-step method to construct a half fractional design with the
highest possible design resolution:

1. List the full factorial designs for k – 1 factors to determine the first k ‐1 columns
of the desired fraction.

2. The level for the remaining blank column (k‐th) is calculated by multiplying the
levels of the previouscolumns from that same row.

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Construction of a 2 4 - 1 Half Fractional

Example

1. List the full factorial design table

24-1 = 23
Leave the levels for factor D blank
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 Construction of Fractional
2. The missing levels of factor D can be obtained by multiplying columns A, B and C
according to the generator. In this case, the generator is D= ABC, resulting in:

AA B C
C D= ABC
D=ABC
- - - -
+ - - +
- + - +
+ + - -
- - + +
+ - + -
- + + -
+ + + +
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Construction of Fractional

Number of Number of Fraction

Design Resolution Generators
factors Runs
4 4-1 IV 8 1/2 D = ABC
5 5-1 V 16 1/2 E = ABCD
6 6-1 VI 32 1/2 F = ABCDE
6 6-2 IV 15 1/4 E = ABCD
7 7-1 VII 64 1/2 G = ABCDEF
7 7-2 IV 32 1/4 F = ABCD
7 7-3 IV 16 1/8 G = ABC
8 8-2 V 64 1/4 G = ABCD
8 8-3 IV 32 1/8 E=BCD
8 8-4 IV 16 1/16 E = BCD

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 V. Exercise
A semiconductor manufacturing plant wants to improve its yield. The factors that affect
yield are the following:

C: Development B: Exposure A: Size of

time time opening

30 secs Above 20% Small

45 secs Large
Below 20%
Yield
Small 14.5 min
Large 15.5 min
D: Mask E: Etching
dimension time

Determine which are the significant factors and in what levels of each one, the response is maximized
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Exercise
Exercise
Yates A B C D E Yield % Yates A B C D E Yield %
Notation Notation
(1) -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 7 e -1 -1 -1 -1 1 8
a 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 9 ae 1 -1 -1 -1 1 12
b -1 1 -1 -1 -1 34 be -1 1 -1 -1 1 35
ab 1 1 -1 -1 -1 55 abe 1 1 -1 -1 1 52
c -1 -1 1 -1 -1 16 ce -1 -1 1 -1 1 15
ac 1 -1 1 -1 -1 20 ace 1 -1 1 -1 1 22
bc -1 1 1 -1 -1 40 bce -1 1 1 -1 1 45
abc 1 1 1 -1 -1 60 abce 1 1 1 -1 1 65
d -1 -1 -1 1 -1 8 de -1 -1 -1 1 1 6
ad 1 -1 -1 1 -1 10 ade 1 -1 -1 1 1 10
bd -1 1 -1 1 -1 32 bde -1 1 -1 1 1 30
abd 1 1 -1 1 -1 50 abde 1 1 -1 1 1 53
cd -1 -1 1 1 -1 18 cde -1 -1 1 1 1 15
acd 1 -1 1 1 -1 21 acde 1 -1 1 1 1 20
bcd -1 1 1 1 -1 44 bcde -1 1 1 1 1 41
abcd 1 1 1 1 -1 61 abcde 1 1 1 1 1 63

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 Exercise
Main Alternate
Fraction Fraction
e (1)
a ae
b be
abe ab
c ce
ace ac
bce bc
abc abce
d de
ade ad
bde bd
abd abde
cde cd
acd acde
bcd bcde
abcde abcd
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