In this paper, central composite design (CCD) based on Design of Experiment (DoE) is applied to obtain an optimal design of the vane geometry for a variable geometry turbine (VGT). The design is tested at four different pressure ratios (1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0) on a Garrett GT1541V turbocharger. Seventeen different cases for the inlet guide vanes are proposed. All cases, each having a unique combination of vane height, thickness, length and angle, has been produced via 3D printing. The goal of this study is to ascertain how vane geometry impacts turbine efficiency, so as to arrive at the ideal configuration for this specific turbine for the investigated range of operating conditions. As a main outcome, the results demonstrate that the applied vane angle has the strongest impact on the turbine efficiency, with smaller angles yielding the most favorable results. After CCD analysis, an optimized design for the vanes geometry with 76.31% efficiency (averagely in all pressures) is proposed. As a final step, all cases are analyzed from a free space parameter (FSP) perspective, with the theoretically optimal design (e.g., FSP < 5) corresponding nicely to the best experimental results. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.