Constructing minimum aberration split-plot designs via complementary sets when the whole plot factors are important.

In practice, fractional factorial split-plot (FFSP) designs are widely used when the levels of some factors are very difficult to change or control. The factors of an FFSP design are divided into two groups, the whole plot (WP) and subplot (SP) factors. When the WP factors are more important than SP factors, Wang et al. (2019) gave a new optimal criterion for selecting designs, that is, the minimum aberration of type WP (WP-MA). This article considers the construction of WP-MA FFSP designs by using the complementary sets as the main technical tool. The results are then applied to find optimal designs under the WP-MA criterion. Many useful designs are found and tabulated. • Some theoretical results of design construction are given. • Many useful designs are tabulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]