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	A general overview of response surface methodology
 Andre I  Khuri  
    
 
   
    
    
  
    
    
   
      
      
        
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Department of Statistics, University of Florida, USA
Correspondence: Andre I. Khuri, Department of Statistics, University of Florida, USA
Received: October 29, 2017 | Published: March 10, 2017
Citation: Khuri AI. A general overview of response surface methodology. Biom Biostat Int J. 2017;5(3):87-93. DOI: 10.15406/bbij.2017.05.00133
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Response surface methodology
  Response surface methodology  (RSM) is a collection of statistical and mathematical techniques used for the  purpose of
  
    - Setting up a  series of experiments (design) for adequate predictions of a response y.
- Fitting a  hypothesized (empirical) model to data obtained under the chosen design.
- Determining  optimum conditions on the model's input (control) variables that lead to  maximum or minimum response within a region of interest.
Formal work on RSM began with the  publication of the article On the Experimental Attainment of Optimum Conditions  by Box et al.1
 
RSM review articles
  - Hill  and Hunter2
- Mead  and Pike3
- Myers,  Khuri, and Carter4
See also the article by Steinberg  and Hunter.5
 
RSM books include
  - Myers  and Montgomery6
- Khuri  and Cornell7
- Box  and Draper8
  
The present article provides a  general overview of response surface methodology (RSM).
 
Notation
  Let 
 denote the mean of a response variable 
. Let 
denote a set of input, or control,  variables. Then, 
  
    For example, we have the first-order  model
  
    or the second-order model
 
 
    where 
 and 
    Let 
 denote the design setting of variable 
 at the uth experimental run 
. Let 
 denote the corresponding response value. By definition,  the design matrix 
 is the 
matrix
    We have the linear model
    where 
 is 
of rank p and 
is a vector of unknown  parameters. 
    The least-squares estimator of 
 is
  
  
  
    where 
is a vector of order 
of the same form as a row of 
, but
    is evaluated at the point 
    For a first-order model, the  predicted response is
  
    and for a second-order  model we have
  
    The prediction variance is  given by
  
 
Choice of a response surface design
  Some important properties of a  response surface design (Box and Draper)8:
  
    - Generation  of a satisfactory distribution of information throughout the region of  interest, 
.
- “Closeness"  of 
to 
over 
.
- Good  detectibility of lack of fit.
- Insensitivity  (robustness) to extreme observations and to violations of the usual normal  theory assumptions.
- Ability to  perform experiments in blocks.
- Extendibility  to a higher-order design.
- Requiring a  small number of experimental runs.
 
Variance-related design criteria
  
    - D-optimality:  Maximization of 
  
  is propotional to the volume of  an ellipsoidal confidence region on 
  
  .
    - A-optimality:  Minimization of 
      
  
- E-optimality:  Minimization of the largest eigenvalue of 
- G-optimality:  Minimization of 
- The above  are referred to as alphabetic optimality criteria. Some authors, including Box [9], have questioned the applicability of  alphabetic optimality theory to response surface experiments, since such  optimal designs are sensitive to the form of the model.
- Rotatability:  A design D is rotatable if 
is constant at all points that  are equidistant from the design center (Box and Hunter (1957)).
        - A rotatable  design has the uniform precision property (UP) if the prediction variance at 
is equal to the prediction  variance at a distance 
 from the  origin. A design is rotatable if and only if the 
 matrix has a particular form.
- Rotatability  is a desirable property to have, especially when there is a need to optimize 
over the surface of a  hypersphere, as is the case in ridge analysis.
- Orthogonality:  A design is orthogonal if it can provide independent information about the effects  of the various terms in the model.
Examples:
  
    - 
is orthogonal, but is not  rotatable.
- Central  composite design can be made rotatable and either have the
- UP property  or the orthogonality property.
 
Bias-related design criteria
  The  fitted model is
    
    The  “True" model is
 
  Integrated Mean Squared Error  Criterion:10,11 This amounts to the  minimization of J, where
    
  
is the reciprocal of the volume  of 
.
   
   
  
   
   
    where 
is the alias matrix, and 
is the matrix corresponding to 
    The  Box and Draper criterion for the minimization of 
is:
 
  
    Designs  that minimize J have characteristics similar to those of designs which minimize 
alone (all bias designs).
 
Design robustness
  A  design is robust if it helps reduce the impact of nonideal conditions on data  analysis. Some of these conditions include
 
    - Nonnormal errors
- Missing observations
- Outliers
Box12 introduced the word “robust" when examining the effect of  departure from normality on the analysis of variance. Some relevant articles  are:13,15,16,48
 
Designs for the slope
  These are  designs for the estimation of the partial derivatives of the mean response 
with respect 
    Myers and Lahoda17 extended the Box-Draper integrated mean squared error criterion to find appropriate  designs for the joint estimation of the partial derivatives of 
. 
    Hader and Park18 introduced the concept of design  rotatability for second-order models. Under this design criterion, 
is constant at  all points that are equidistant from the design center 
 
    Park19 considered “slope rotatability  over all directions": 
  
 
  
    where 
is a unit vector.
 
  
    where 
 denotes the surface of a  hypersphere of unit radius, 
 is the reciprocal of the  surface of 
.
 
    A design 
is slope rotatable over all directions if 
is constant at all points equidistant from the design center.
    Park gave necessary and sufficient conditions  for a design to be slope rotatable over all directions for second-order models.
  
  Related articles
  
    - Huda and Mukerjee20
- Mukerjee and Huda,21
- Park22
 
Designs to increase the power of the lack of fit test
  These are designs that induce a certain degree of sensitivity to possible  inadequacy of the fitted model. 
    Construction of such designs is done by the  maximization of 
  
  
   
optimality: Maximize 
, the minimum of
over a specified region
    
 in the 
 space.
    
optimality: Maximize 
, the average value of 
over the boundary of 
.
 
Response surface analysis
  Estimation of Optimum Conditions.
    The Method of Steepest Ascent This is a  maximum-region-seeking procedure introduced by Box and  Wilson1 for RSM: To maximize
  
    subject to the constraint 
  
    where 
is a unit vector in the direction of 
A related article is Myers and Khuri.23
 
Ridge analysis
  Related articles include Hoerl,24 Draper25
    To maximize (minimize)
 
    subject to the constraint
  
    where 
 is a Lagrange multiplier.
    For a maximum, 
should be larger than 
.
    For a minimum, 
should be smaller than 
.
    By selecting several values of 
as shown above, we obtain plots of
    max. 
 vs. r and plots of 
 vs. 
 for 
    Khuri  and Myers26 introduced a certain modification to the method of ridge analysis in cases in  which the design is not rotatable and may even be ill conditioned. In such  cases, 
can vary appreciably on a hypersphere 
centered at the origin inside a region of interest. The proposed  modification optimizes 
on 
subject to maintaining certain a constraint on the size of 
  
  where 
is the number of parameters in the model, 
are orthonor-mal eigenvectors of 
, and 
are the corresponding eigenvalues of 
. Let 
be the smallest eigenvalue of 
 and let 
be the corresponding eigenvector. To optimize 
subject to the constraints
    
  
    where 
is a small positive constant, or equivalently,
 
 
Confidence intervals and confidence regions  associated with the optimum response
  The  estimated optimum of a mean response and the location of the optimum are  obtained by using
. They are therefore random variables. In order to have a better  assessment of optimum conditions, confidence intervals on the optimum of the  mean response as well as confidence regions on the location of the optimum are  needed. Relevant references include 
    - Box and Hunter27
- Stablein, Carter, and Wampler28
- Carter, Chinchilli, Campbell, and Wampler29
- Carter, Chinchilli, Myers, and Campbell30
 
Measure of rotatability31
  A design is  rotattable if and only if the 
matrix has a particular form, which we denote by
. For any given design
, the “closeness" of the corresponding 
 matrix to 
can be determined. On this basis, a measure 
, which quantifies the percent rotatability that is inherent in 
, can be derived. 
 design 
is rotatable if and only if 
.
  For example,  the 
factorial design is 93.08% rotatable.
    Properties  of
:
 
    - It is invariant to a change of scale (same change for all the  input variables).
- It is invariant to the addition of experimental runs at the design  center (design augmentation at the center).
- It applies to any response surface model and design.
- It is not invariant to design rotation.
Draper and Pukelsheim32 introduced  a similar measure that is invariant to design rotation, but it applies only to  second-order models.
 
Advantages of a measure of rotatability
 
    - Can be used  to compare designs with respect to their degree of rotatability.
- Can be used  to construct a design that satisfies a certain desirable criterion, such as a  bias or a variance criterion, in addition to having a relatively high percent  rotatability.
- Can be used  to “repair" rotatability by the addition of properly chosen experimental  runs to a given design.
 
Variance dispersion graphs
  Giovannitti-jensen  and myers (1989)   
  They plotted maximum and minimum values of 
, on a hyperspher 
, against 
.
    Relevant Reference are Khuri33 used the measure of rotatability 
 to derive several upper  bounds on the range of 
. These bounds are easy to compute since they only require  determining eigenvalues and traces associated with the matrices 
and
, where
    
  and 
 is the “rotatable"  portion of 
.
 
Measuring slope rotatability
  Park and Kim34 defined a measure 
to quantify the degree of slope  rotatability over axial directions18 for  second-order models. It takes the value zero if and only if the design is slope  rotatable. It can also be used to “repair" slope rotatability by design  augmentation.
    Jang and Park35 considered the maximum, 
, and minimum,
, values of 
 over a hypersphere 
, where
  
    The quantity
 
    is  zero if and only if the design is slope rotatable over all directions. Jang and  Park plotted 
and  
against 
(slope variance dispersion graphs). 
 
Achievement of target conditions
  Khuri and vining36  
  Specification  Problem: To determine conditions on the input variables in a process that cause  the mean response 
  to fall within  specified bounds, e.g.,  
, where a and b are given, with a specified degree of  confidence.
Procedure
  Start  with an initial n-point design 
 
    Calculate 
    Compute 
 
 
    Where
 
    If there is a point 
 such that 
, then 
has a probability of at least 
of satisfying
  
 is a solution to the specification  problem.
    Khuri and Vining presented a sequential  procedure of adding points to 
, if necessary, until a solution can be found to the inequalities
  
    for a sufficiently large 
.
 
Multiresponse experiments
  An  experiment in which a number of responses can be measured for each setting of a  group of input variable, 
, is called a multiresponse experiment.
  When several  responses are considered simultaneously, any statistical investigation of the  responses should take into consideration the multi- variate nature of the data.  The response variables should not be analyzed individually or independently of  one another. This is particularly true when the response variables are  correlated.
  Traditional  response surface techniques that apply to single response models are, in  general, not adequate to analyze multiresponse models.
 
Linear multiresponse models
  In  particular, if the individual response models are linear, then 
  
     
 
Box draper37 determinant criterion
  
  
    An  estimate of 
 is obtained by minimizing the determinant of
 
 
    Relevant  articles include Box, Hunter, MacGregor, and Erjavec;38  Khuri.39
 
Estimation for linear multiresponse models
  The r  linear response models,
  
    can  be represented as a single linear multiresponse model
  
    Where 
 
    X is a block-diagonal matrix 
,
  
   and, 
 
    The variance-covariance matrix of is given by  the direct (Kronecker) product 
  
    If 
is unknown, an estimate 
can be used, where
    and 
  
    Zelner40
    In particular, if 
, then,
  
 
Designs for multiresponse models
  Draper and Hunter,41 Fedorov):42 D-optimal  designs. 
must be known. Wijesinha and Khuri43  used an estimate of 
. Wijesinha and Khuri44 considered  designs that maximize the power of the multi variate lack fit test.
    Khuri:45  Multiresponse rotatability for linear multirespose models. 
    A design is multiresponse rotatable if 
 is constant at all points x that are equidistant from  the origin, where
is the vector of r predicted responses.
    This design property can be achieved if and  only if the design is rotatable for a single-response model having the highest  degree among all the r response models.
 
Lack of fit of a multiresponse model
  Khuri46 
    The models
 
    can be written as
  
    where
 
 
 
 
    Assume that replicated observations are  available on all the responses at some points in a region of interest.
The above model suffers from lack of fit if  and only if there exists a linear combination of the responses that suffers  from lack of fit.
The multivariate lack of fit test is Roy's largest-root test, 
  Where 
 
 
  
 
  (
repeated observations are taken at the 
th design point 
).
  Large values  of the test statistic are significant.
  Note: The test may be significant even though  the response models do not individually exhibit a significant lack of fit.
 
A numerical example
  Richert, et al.47 investigated the effects of heating temperature
, pH level
, redox potential 
, sodium oxalate 
, and sodium lauryl sulfate 
 on foaming properties of  whey protein concentrates. The responses are 
=whipping time
    
=maximum overrun
=percent soluble protein.
    A second-order model was assumed for each  response.
 
Multiresponse optimization
  Khuri and Conlon48
    The purpose of a multiresponse optimization  technique is to find operating conditions on the input variables that lead to  optimal, or near optimal, values of several response functions.
  
    In this case, an unbiased estimate of 
, the variance-covariance matrix of ther response variables, is given by
  
  
    Let 
    Let 
be the  optimum value of 
optimized individually over a region of interest R 
.
 
 
    An “ideal” optimum occurs when 
, for 
, attain their individual optima at the same set  of conditions.
To find “compromise  conditions" that are somewhat favorable to all the responses, we consider  the metric (distance function)
  Multiresponse optimization is  then reduced to minimizing 
with respect to 
 over 
.
 
Future directions in RSM
    - Research workers in RSM should provide the means  to facilitate the use of RSM by data analysts, practitioners, and  experimenters.
- Research workers in RSM need feedback from  experimenters. This can help create methodology that applies to realistic  situations.
- Better software support. The software currently  available for RSM is limited. This is particularly true in the multiresponse  area.
- More research work is needed in the  multiresponse case, especially in the design area.
- Multiresponse techniques should be modified to  allow the presence of a block effect in the model.
- There is a need to explore new RSM techniques  suitable for more general models under less restrictive assumptions  (generalized linear models).
- Develop designs which are robust with respect to  several criteria.
- There is a need for nonparametric techniques in  RSM (model-free techniques).
 
Acknowledgments
 Conflicts of interest
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