A central composite design (Figure 10.2) combines a two-level fractional factorial design and two other types of points:
Center points, where all the factor values are set to the midrange value.
Axial points, where one factor is set to a high or low value (an axial value) and all other factors are set to the midrange value.
Figure 10.2 Central Composite Design for Three Factors
A Box-Behnken design (Figure 10.3) has only three levels per factor and has no design points at the vertices of the cube defined by the ranges of the factors. This type of design can be useful when you must avoid these points due to engineering considerations. But, the lack of design points at the vertices of the cube means that a Box-Behnken design has higher prediction variance, and so less precision, near the vertices compared to a central composite design.
Figure 10.3 Box-Behnken Design for Three Factors
In both cases, the design table contains a Model script that you can run to fit a model. The Model script applies the Response Surface Effect attribute to each main effect, so that the main effects appear with a &RS suffix in the Fit Model window. This attribute ensures that the Fit Least Squares report contains a Response Surface report. For details about this report, see Fit Least Squares Report in the Fitting Linear Models book.

Help created on 7/12/2018