As manufacturing processes become more complex and competitive pressures intensify, companies are increasingly turning to structured experimentation and advanced analytics to optimise production, reduce waste and accelerate innovation.
Against this backdrop, global analytics provider Minitab has announced the acquisition of advanced experimental design platform Effex, a move the company says will help manufacturers connect experimentation more closely with operational decision-making.
According to Minitab, Effex brings a large catalogue of proprietary experimental designs, optimal design algorithms and optimisation techniques used to help engineers design experiments more efficiently. The company said the acquisition responds to increasing demand from manufacturers – particularly in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and chemicals – for tools that support more systematic experimentation.
In an exclusive interview with Australian Manufacturing, Minitab president Josh Zable said Design of Experiments (DOE) is becoming an essential capability as manufacturing environments grow more complex.
“To improve something, you first need to understand it,” Zable said. “DOE provides a structured approach to understanding your process, not by guessing or relying on hindsight, but by designing small, effective tests that reveal how inputs truly influence outcomes.”
Experimentation gaining importance in manufacturing
Zable said manufacturers are facing tighter tolerances, more variables and increasing expectations around product quality and efficiency.
“In today’s manufacturing environment, increased complexity, tighter tolerances, more variables and higher customer expectations make clarity essential,” he said.
DOE allows manufacturers to systematically test process variables and identify optimal production conditions, helping improve productivity while reducing waste and time spent troubleshooting.
“By learning more quickly than your competitors, you can innovate faster, minimise waste and consistently deliver quality, and that’s the essence of genuine competitiveness,” Zable said.
Linking experimentation to production decisions
Minitab said the acquisition of Effex is designed to make advanced experimentation tools more accessible while ensuring experimental insights can be applied directly to manufacturing operations.
Zable said the company plans to integrate Effex into the Minitab Solution Center platform to create a continuous flow between data collection, experimentation and production decisions.
“Our goal with the Effex acquisition was to make experimentation simpler, more customisable and more actionable,” he said.
“By integrating Effex into the broader Minitab platform, we are creating a seamless flow from data collection to experimentation to learning to decision-making. This enables operators and engineers to use experiment results directly to set process targets and make production decisions.”
AI-assisted DOE in digital factories
Artificial intelligence is also playing an increasing role in the design and analysis of experiments in manufacturing environments.
According to Zable, AI-assisted DOE tools can help engineers identify more efficient experiment designs, particularly in complex systems with many interacting variables.
“AI’s role in DOE isn’t about replacing engineers; it’s about augmenting them,” he said.
Zable said the combined experimental design libraries from Minitab and Effex include millions of potential experiment configurations.
“With AI-powered DOE, manufacturers can simulate changes, assess trade-offs and implement improvements with much less risk,” he said. “It’s a practical way to combine experimentation with real-time decision support.”
Operational improvements for manufacturers
Zable said manufacturers across several sectors have used advanced experimentation to achieve measurable improvements in production performance.
“One pharmaceutical customer used smarter experimental designs to reduce weeks from their testing phase and save kilograms of expensive raw material while still meeting quality standards,” he said.
In another example, a team working on sustainable processing increased yield from about 37 per cent to more than 57 per cent while also reducing extraction time.
“These are not just theoretical improvements,” Zable said. “Advanced DOE can have direct impacts on cost and throughput.”
Different industries apply DOE in different ways, he added. Chemical manufacturers often focus on understanding reactions and formulations with minimal experimental runs, while semiconductor manufacturers use experimentation to improve yields where even small gains can translate into significant financial benefits.
“In semiconductors, even a tiny yield improvement can mean millions of dollars in savings,” Zable said. “In automotive, DOE helps balance performance, durability and cost by aligning design and manufacturing.”
Trend toward analytics consolidation
Minitab said the acquisition also reflects a broader industry trend in which manufacturers are consolidating analytics, experimentation and optimisation tools into unified platforms.
Zable said many manufacturers are seeking to reduce the number of disconnected software tools used across production and engineering teams.
“Most manufacturers tell us the same thing: they don’t want six different tools to do six different things and six different versions of the truth,” he said.
“If your experiment results are stored in one tool, your optimisation in another and your analytics elsewhere, you waste time connecting them and risk losing context.”
Integrating these capabilities into a single platform can reduce data translation errors and accelerate decision-making in production environments, he said.
Implications for future manufacturing innovation
Looking ahead, Zable said experimentation and advanced analytics will play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of manufacturing, including in Australia.
He pointed to sectors such as advanced materials, defence technology, agritech and high-value processing as areas where structured experimentation could support innovation and competitiveness.
“An organisation that integrates structured experimentation and advanced analytics into its daily decision-making will secure a competitive advantage,” Zable said.
“Experimentation offers risk-managed ways to innovate, and analytics give you the confidence to act on what you discover.”
Minitab said the integration of Effex forms part of its broader effort to expand its process improvement platform as manufacturers increasingly adopt digital technologies to optimise production and navigate complex global supply chains.
This article contains information provided by Minitab, LLC and is intended for general use only. It does not take into account your personal, professional, or business circumstances.
