The JMP Division of SAS sponsored the largest-ever conference on design of experiments (DOE) in continental Europe. Attendees from 21 countries met at the University of Antwerp in Belgium in January to hear from internationally renowned DOE researchers.

“It was a historic event for DOE in Europe,” said Peter Goos, Professor of Statistics at the University of Antwerp, who served as the conference organizer and one of the speakers.

The 139 people who attended the International Conference on Design of Industrial Experiments on Jan. 14 and 15 heard keynote presentations on such topics as the history of the field, Six Sigma and DOE, supersaturated designs, DOE for robust product designs, optimal and classical designs for quality improvement, and DOE for nonlinear models.

“One-third of the attendees were from industry and consulting. This is quite exceptional by European standards for conferences,” Goos said. “It was also remarkable that people from industry enjoyed the academic talks. Often, they think that academics only work on problems they don't really care about.”

Designed experiments are among the most cost-beneficial of statistical methods. They are applicable whenever a system has controllable inputs and measurable outputs. There are thousands of successful case studies in industries as diverse as auto, semiconductor and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Yet, in Europe, DOE is not a commonly used tool in industry.

“A goal for this conference was to jump-start interest in the practical application of DOE in Europe,” said Bradley Jones, a Senior Manager at JMP and one of the presenters. “The large response was really gratifying.”

The 10 distinguished speakers were:

• Blanton Godfrey, Dean and Joseph D. Moore Professor of Textile and Apparel Management Technology of the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University.
• Peter Goos, Professor of Statistics at the University of Antwerp.
• J. Stuart Hunter, Professor Emeritus of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University.
• Bradley Jones, Senior Manager of Statistical Research and Development in the JMP Division of SAS.
• William Li, Associate Professor in Operations Research and Management Science at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
• Dennis Lin, Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management and Statistics at the Pennsylvania State University.
• Douglas C. Montgomery, Regents’ Professor of Industrial Engineering and Statistics at Arizona State University.
• Chris Nachtsheim, the Curtis L. Carlson Professor of Operations and Management Sciences at the University of Minnesota.
• John Sall, co-founder and Executive Vice President of SAS and head of the JMP Division.
• David Steinberg, Professor in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at Tel Aviv University.

Sall spoke on integrating design and analysis of experiments in generic data analysis software. Jones gave two presentations: on the design and analysis of computer experiments, and on computer-aided designs for practical experimentation.

“The program was excellent. First-class speakers – from very senior gurus like Stu Hunter to young rising stars like William Li – spoke on state-of-art research in design of experiment, from the practical to the theoretical,” Lin said.

In addition to the talks by the keynote speakers, 19 researchers presented their research in poster format in three themed poster walks at the conference: teaching DOE, consulting and marketing experiments; design and analysis for computer experiments; and design and analysis of physical experiments.