The American Society for Quality

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Response surface methodology (RSM) is a collection of tools developed in the 1950s for the purpose of determining optimum operating conditions in applications in the chemical industry. This article reviews the progress of RSM in the general areas of experimental design and analysis and indicates how its role has been affected by advances in other fields of applied statistics. Current areas of research in RSM are highlighted, and areas for future research are discussed.