LouV,
We've already narrowed down the likely factors, and performed a multi-vari analysis to be sure our production system (i.e., equipment & measurement systems) and setup/operators were not causing variation.
Now we're down to "incoming material variation" & "process parameters". And the incoming material isn't varying much.
Per our Cause & Effect diagram (the Ishikawa had 24 possibilities), we were able to get to the four most likely factors.
The DSD method was chosen because the # DSD runs (9) is less than the normal screening # runs (16), and because we can screen for multiple levels in one screening run.
I'm more interested in detecting factor curvature* vs. economical design.
* I'm pretty sure one or more of the factors exhibit curvature.
Don't know if this is very relevant, but I'm using JMP7.
Thanks for the help.
RB