According to Wikipedia (font of all knowledge!) design of experiments includes the design of all information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not.

So what's that all about? Well, look at it like this. You might have a bee in your bonnet (known in the trade as a hypothesis) that when you drop a piece of toast, it will more often than not land butter side down. How are you going to prove it?

That's where design of experiments comes in. Whether changes are being made to an existing process (product or system), or a new process (system or product) is being designed, it is always desirable to know the effects of the factors used in the process and the effects of the interactions between those factors on the expected outcome. And it can be used to design an experiment which would test your theory about the toast too!

Like a lot of statistical work, it can appear complicated and heavy going so if you fancy a chat about it contact us and we'll see what we can do to help.