Some Definitions

Figure 1: System diagram showing inputs, outputs and factors. — **Figure 1:** System diagram showing inputs, outputs and factors.

Each process or system has inputs, outputs and is controlled by a number of factors that we wish to investigate to determine their impact on the outputs (Figure 1). We also want to control some of the noise factors out there; these can be factors such as the person doing the experiment or the equipment.

The experimental space is the combination of all possible experimental conditions for a process and their values that may affect the outcome of an experiment.