The Pittsburgh Penguins are in the midst of another Stanley Cup playoff run. With a 3-1 lead over the Ottawa Senators, they are a mere 1 game away from their 3rd Eastern Conference Final in 6 years. But it looks like they will do so without starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

After a string of disappointing playoff games, Fleury has been benched and netminder Tomas Vokoun has been guarding the goal. And Vokoun is playing so well that it doesn’t look like Fleury will see the ice anytime soon.

So what does this have to do with statistics? Well, Fleury’s statistics tell the story of why he is on...

Over on the Indium Corporation's blog, Dr. Ron Lasky has been sharing some interesting ideas about using the Weibull distribution in electronics manufacturing. For instance, check out this discussion of how dramatically an early first-failure can affect an analysis of a part or component (in this case, an alloy used to solder components to a circuit board). 

This got me thinking again about all the different situations in which the Weibull distribution can help us make good decisions. The main reason Weibull is so useful is that it's very flexible in fitting different types of data, because it...

In a previous post, I wrote about how the field of statistics is more important now than ever before due to the modern deluge of data. Because you’re reading Minitab's statistical blog, I’ll assume that we’re in agreement that statistics allows you to use data to understand reality. However, I’d also bet that you’re picturing important but “typical” statistical studies, such as studies where Six Sigma analysts determine which factors affect product quality. Or perhaps medical studies, like determining the effectiveness of flu shots.

In this post,...

We usually think of games as a distraction—just something we do for fun. However, growing evidence suggests that games can do much more, especially when it comes to learning in a classroom setting.

Because statistics is a topic that doesn’t come easily to most, using properly designed games to teach statistics can become a valuable tool to spark interest and help explain difficult concepts.

So what kinds of “properly designed” games are we talking about here? Not traditional board games like Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders, but interactive computer games—the types of games younger generations...

Unless you’re 3 years old, you probably can’t have things just the way you want them all the time.  

You can’t always have peanut butter and ranch dressing on your toast. Or ketchup on your pineapple. Or sugar sprinkles on your peas.

But there is one small arena in life over which you can still exert your control. 

Tools > Options in Minitab's statistical software allows you to change selected default settings in the software, without having to throw a temper tantrum first.

This powerful, underutilized feature in Minitab may save you from the inconvenience of having to change a default setting...

After another round of what seems like endless conference realignment, the Big Ten has settled on 14 teams split into two divisions; East and West. However, with the likes of Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Michigan State, the East division appears to be much stronger. In fact, Indiana athletic director Fred Glass called it the “Big Boy Division,” and Penn State coach Bill O’Brien referred to it as “Murderers' Row.”

But will the statistics back up their claims? After all, it’s easy to spout off any opinion you want. I could claim that the Sun Belt is a better football conference than the...

I'm in the airport at Indianapolis, waiting to go home after three exciting days at the 2013 American Society for Quality World Conference.  As I write this, it's Wednesday evening after the conference has closed, and it turns out my flight has been delayed.

This could give me ample opportunity to muse about the quality issues that might keep me from reaching central Pennsylvania tonight. But I'm kind of pumped up, so I'm more interested in thinking about what I've experienced and seen over the past few days. This is the kind of event that makes you want to keep focusing on the positive, not...

The 2013 ASQ World Conference is taking place this week in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it's been a treat to see how our software was used in the projects highlighted in many of the presentations. As a supporter of the conference, a key event for quality practitioners around the world, Minitab was proud to sponsor one of the presentations that seemed to get a lot of attendees talking. Scott Sterbenz, a Six Sigma leader from Ford Motor Company, delivered a presentation entitled "Leveraging Designed Experiments for Success," which explained how to make designed experiments succeed with examples...

I once had a boss who had difficulty understanding many, many things. When I need to discuss statistical concepts with people who don't have a statistical background, I like to think about how I could explain things so even my old boss would get it. 

My boss and I shared a common interest in rock and roll, so that's the device I'll use to explain one of the workhorses of quality statistics, the Pareto chart. I'd tell my boss to imagine that instead of managing a surly gang of teenaged restaurant employees, he's managing a surly rock and roll band, the Zero Sigmas. The band did a 100-date tour...

Multicollinearity is problem that you can run into when you’re fitting a regression model, or other linear model. It refers to predictors that are correlated with other predictors in the model. Unfortunately, the effects of multicollinearity can feel murky and intangible, which makes it unclear whether it’s important to fix.

My goal in this blog post is to bring the effects of multicollinearity to life with real data! Along the way, I’ll show you a simple tool that can remove multicollinearity in some cases.

You know the drill…you’re in Six Sigma training and you’re learning how to conduct a design of experiment (DOE). Everything is making sense, and you’ve started thinking about how you’ll apply what you are learning to find the optimal settings of a machine on the factory floor. You’ve even got the DOE setup chosen and you know the factors you want to test …

Then … BAM! … You’re on your own and you immediately have issues analyzing the data. The design you’ve chosen might actually not be the best for the results you need.  It's a classic case of learning something in theory that becomes much more...

As a teenaged dishwasher at a local eatery, I had a boss who'd never washed dishes in a restaurant himself. I once spent 40 minutes trying to convince him that forks and spoons should go in their holders with the business end up, while knives should go in point-down. Whatever I said, he didn't get it. We were ordered to put forks and spoons in the holders with the handles up.

The outraged wait staff soon made clear what I hadn't: you can't immediately tell the difference between a fork and a spoon when all you can see is the handle! Explaning that in the right way would have minimized wasted...

In regression analysis, we look at the correlations between one or more input variables, or factors, and a response. We might look at how baking time and temperature relate to the hardness of a piece of plastic, or how educational levels and the region of one's birth relate to annual income. The number of potential factors you might include in a regression model is limited only by your imagination...and your capacity to actually gather the data you imagine.

But before throwing data about every potential predictor under the sun into your regression model, remember a thing called multicollinearity...

Due to recent comments on this blog post (scroll down to view the comments section), I want to acknowledge that the definition of Lean in this post is incomplete. The goal of this post wasn't to offer definitions of Lean, Six Sigma, or any other methodology, but was rather to state that the focus of improvement efforts should be on using all the available tools, whether those be Lean or Six Sigma tools or both, to make the necessary improvements. Thank you to those who left comments and opinions. I appreciate your viewpoints and discussion on this topic. -Carly Barry

When I first started working...

Across all industries, there are many different ways professionals utilize Minitab Statistical Software to improve the quality of their products and services.

You may be a professional in the health care industry who is interested in monitoring the days between hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) using rare event charts.  You may be a professional in manufacturing who is using a Pareto chart to evaluate the types of defects you are discovering during the inspection process.  Or you may be a product manager like me who uses Minitab analytics to evaluate customer survey data.

But no matter the...

by Matthew Barsalou, guest blogger

Process capability analysis using Minitab Statistical Software’s Capability SixpackTM can be taught using a catapult. A process capability analysis is performed to determine if a process is statistically capable.

In my last blog post, I collected data from a first run of catapult results and found that the run not only had a large amount of variability, it also violated the assumption of normality. Now it's time to do a second run.  

The Second Run and Capability Analysis

A second run was performed using thicker and more robust wire to stretch the rubber band;...

by Matthew Barsalou, guest blogger

We can use a simple catapult to teach process capability analysis using Minitab Statistical Software’s Capability SixpackTM. Here's how.

A process capability analysis is performed to determine if a process is statistically capable. Based on the results of the capability study, we can estimate the amount of defective components the process would produce.

However, a process must be in statistical control and have a normal distribution. A process that is not in statistical control must be brought in control before the capability analysis is performed. In addition,...

Here at the lightsaber factory, we've completed several steps in doing a capability analysis:

• We made sure our data was collected and entered correctly in Minitab
• We identified the distribution of the data
• We made sure all of our assumptions checked out

We’re getting close to our deadline, and it’s finally time to carry out our Capability Analysis and see if we are manufacturing our lightsabers to the correct specifications as set forth by the Jedi Temple.

First, let’s go to Stat > Quality Tools > Capability Analysis > Normal.  (If you want to play along and you don't already have it, get...

by Patrique Roonquel, guest blogger
Institut Sacre Bleu

I enjoy using Minitab Statistical Software to uncover the vast causal relationships unfolding in the universe all around me. 

What kind of novel things have I proven with Minitab? Almost anything you can imagine, mon petite shoe.

For example, the fitted line plot below clearly shows one thing:  it’s time for our political parties to stop all the bickering and finally give Americans what we really want…

…a much taller president!

(See the dot way up at the top of the plot? That’s George Washington, the Father of our Country.  He was one of...