Run order consideration for sequential third order rotatable designs

Random execution of run sequences is employed in response surface designs to avoid bias in the response. Since the randomization of run sequences may induce frequent changes in the factor levels, which makes it difficult or expensive for the experimenter, especially when hard-to-change factors are involved in the experiment. Mostly, second order response surface designs (SORDs) are being used to explore the functional relationship between the response and the input variables. But when the lack of fit of the model becomes significant, it is desirable to explore the relationship with a polynomial model of order three. This requires third order rotatable designs (TORDs), which can be sequentially implemented by adding few more runs to the SORDs. In this paper, the construction of sequential TORDs with minimum level changes in the run sequences has been discussed.