Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of factorial experiment over simple experiment?

Answer 1

Advantages

In such type of experiments we study the individual effects of each factor and their interactions.

In factorial experiments a wide range of factor combinations are used.

Factorial approach will result in considerable saving of the experimental resources, experimental material and time.

Disadvantages

When number of factors or levels of factors or both are increased, the number of treatment combinations increases. Consequently block size increases. If block size increases it may be difficult to maintain homogeneity of experimental material. This will lead to increase in experimental error and loss of precision in the experiment.

All treatment combinations are to be included for the experiment irrespective of its importance and hence this results in wastage of experimental material and time.

When many treatment combinations are included the execution of the experiment and statistical analysis become difficult.