A RESPONSE SURFACE TEST BED

SUMMARY A method is presented for creating randomly generated polynomial functions to be used as a test bed of simulated response surfaces. The need for the test bed to perform empirical comparisons of experimental design strategies is discussed and the methods used to create the surfaces are explained. An important feature of the test bed is that the user can control some of the characteristics of the surfaces without directly controlling the surface functions. This allows the user to choose the types of surfaces on which a simulation study is run while preserving the random nature of the surfaces needed for a valid simulation study. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.