Full Factorial Designs

A full factorial design contains all possible combinations of a set of factors. This is the most fool proof design approach, but it is also the most costly in experimental resources. The full factorial designer supports both continuous factors and categorical factors with up to nine levels.

In full factorial designs, you perform an experimental run at every combination of the factor levels. The sample size is the product of the numbers of levels of the factors. For example, a factorial experiment with a two-level factor, a three-level factor, and a four-level factor has 2 x 3 x 4 = 24 runs.

Factorial designs with only two-level factors have a sample size that is a power of two (specifically 2f where f is the number of factors). When there are three factors, the factorial design points are at the vertices of a cube as shown in the diagram below. For more factors, the design points are the vertices of a hypercube.

Full factorial designs are the most conservative of all design types. There is little scope for ambiguity when you are willing to try all combinations of the factor settings.

Unfortunately, the sample size grows exponentially in the number of factors, so full factorial designs are too expensive to run for most practical purposes.

Full Factorial Design

JMP Learning Library – Designed Experiments
Watch a brief video on designing and analyzing a variety of experiment types, including full factorial, fractional factorial, screening and more.

Contents

The Five-Factor Reactor Example

Analyze the Reactor Data

Creating a Factorial Design

Enter Responses and Factors

Select Output Options

Make the Table