Alternatives to resolution III regular fractional factorial designs for 9 - 14 factors in 16 runs

Resolution III regular fractional factorial designs for 9-14 factors in 16 runs are standard designs for factor screening in industrial experimentation because of their economical run size. However, for all these designs, the main effects are completely confounded with some two-factor interaction(s), so experimenters must frequently either augment the original fractional factorial with new runs or rely on assumptions or external information to resolve ambiguities in interpretation.We propose nonregular orthogonal fractions in 16 runs for these situations that have no complete confounding of two-factor interactions and main effects. These designs allow for the unambiguous estimation of the main effects provided that there are only a few two-factor interactions. We show how these designs can be selected from the nonisomorphic 16-run orthogonal fractions and discuss potential analysis methods.