Nonparametric tests for the randomized complete block design with ordered categorical variables

In many scientific disciplines and industrial fields, when dealing with comparisons between two or more treatments, researchers and practitioners are often faced with theoretical and practical problems within the framework of Randomized Complete Block (RCB) design with ordered categorical response variables. This situations can arise very often in the field of the evaluation of educational services or quality of products, for example in connection with the sensorial testing studies, where several useful experimental performance indicators, especially in the food and body care industry, are provided by individual sensorial evaluations by trained people (panelists) during a so-called sensory test (Meilgaard et al., 2006). Within this framework the experimental design typically handles panelists as blocks.