Failure to properly calibrate this machine will result in defective rock and roll. 

In my last post, I imagined using the example of a rock and roll band -- the Zero Sigmas -- to explain Pareto charts to my music-loving but statistically-challenged boss. I showed him how easy it was to use a Pareto chart to visualize defects or problems that occur most often, using the example of various incidents that occurred on the Zero Sigmas last tour.  

The Pareto chart revealed that starting performances late was far and away the Zero Sigmas' most frequent "defect," one that occurred every single night of...

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...

Data.  Analysis. Statistics. It seems like everybody is talking about the importance of doing data analysis, whether it's analytics for predicting consumer behavior or looking at critical metrics for Six Sigma and other data-driven quality improvement programs. Not only do we have more data available to us than ever before, we're also blessed...and/or cursed...with an enormous range of software options to help us make sense out of all this data we're trying so hard to understand. 

Your options for doing data analysis run the gamut—from a pencil, paper and calculator costing a couple of bucks...

If the title of this post made you think you’d be reading about Abraham Lincoln and Tyra Banks, you’re only half right. 

A few weeks ago, statistician and journalist Nate Silver published an interesting post  on how U.S. presidents are ranked by historians. Silver showed that the percentage of electoral votes that a U.S. president receives in his 2nd term election serves as a rough predictor of his average ranking of greatness.

Here’s the model he came up with, which I’ve duplicated in Minitab using the scatterplot with regression and groups (Graph > Scatterplot ):

Silver divided the data into...

One of the most poorly understood concepts in the use of statistics is the idea of assumptions. You've probably encountered many of these assumptions, such as "data normality is an assumption of the 1-sample t-test."  But if you read that statement and believe normality is a requirement of the 1-sample t-test, then you have missed a subtle and important characteristic of assumptions and need to read on...

An "assumption" is not necessarily a "requirement"!

To understand where this idea of assumptions come from, let's forget about statistics for a minute and imagine we sell bikes online.  We...

Want to learn more about analyzing data? Try taking a page from Aesop's book. 

Well...really, I'm suggesting taking multiple pages from Minitab's book, but my suggestion stems from an idea that Aesop epitomizes.  

Aesop was no fool. When he wanted to convey even the heaviest of lessons, he didn't waste time detailing the intellectual and philosophical arguments behind them. He didn't argue, cajole, or berate. He didn't lecture or pontificate. 

He told a story. 

Minitab uses the same approach in Meet Minitab, the introductory guide to data analysis and quality statistics using our statistical...

Have you shopped online to buy gifts this holiday season? With Cyber Monday (the Monday following Black Friday) offering shoppers free shipping and other great discounts for buying online, it’s hard not to take advantage of virtual deals.

I find myself purchasing more and more of my Christmas list online every year, and after comScore’s recent release of this year’s online holiday spending statistics in the U.S., it’s no surprise to me that overall online spending for the first 37 days of the November-December shopping season is up 13% from 2011.

Take a look at this bar chart I created in...

Traditionally, the pieces and parts for most anything we buy are designed and manufactured one-by-one and then assembled into the final product we see on store shelves.  Everything from cars and jet engines to sneakers and cell phones are produced this way.  With the advent of additive manufacturing or “3D printing,” that familiar formula may soon change.  In this process, a virtual design is fed into a 3D printer that constructs the object, layer by layer, until the finished good is fully produced. Since this is a WYSIWYG process, it is an excellent option for designers and development teams...

In my last blog, I showed how it’s possible to statistically assess the structure of a message and determine its capacity to convey information. We saw how my own words fit the patterns that are present in communications that are optimized for conveying information. However, these were fairly rough assessments to illustrate the fundamentals of information theory. 

In this post, I’ll use more sophisticated analyses to more precisely determine whether my blog content fits the ideal distribution. Along the way, we’ll have some interesting discussions about the vagaries of dolphin, human,...

Have you ever found yourself switching back and forth between a Microsoft Excel file and Minitab Statistical Software just to complete a single analysis? Which software will give me the accurate results I need quickly?

I decided to put a few important factors to the test—workflow, organization, quality focus, and help. The review below provides my own two cents on which software seems to work best in a different situations.

Creating Graphs with Raw Data Easily

Microsoft Excel is a general spreadsheet software program. It is great for compiling, sorting, and highlighting large amounts of data....

As the 2012 Summer Olympics are now on in full “speed,” one of my favorite events to follow is the 100m dash. I’m a runner myself - although certainly not at the incredible caliber of Olympic athletes - and I’ve often thought about how running and sprinting has changed in the last 100+ years since the modern Olympic Games started.

For instance, the USA has dominated sprinting in the last 100 years, having the majority of 100m male medalists. However, Usain Bolt – a sprinter from the tiny country of Jamaica – has been in the news recently for his record-breaking time of 9.69 seconds, which was...

Quite a bit has changed since Minitab Statistical Software was first introduced in 1972 at the American Statistical Association Meeting. But some things stay the same!

Fast-forward 40 years, and Minitab is still attending the annual gathering. We’ll be at this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings in San Diego, July 29 – Aug. 1, and we’re really excited to officially commemorate our 40th anniversary at the event where the first version of Minitab was initially distributed and introduced to the academic market.

Even though we’re still attending some of the same events and our commitment to making...

There are some sounds that are quintessential summertime…the whir of the lawnmower, shrieks of children splashing in the pool, the crackle of a campfire. I’m sure we could think of a hundred more. For me, one sound that comes to mind in particular is the chirp of crickets in the evening. In this blog we'll recreate an old country trick using cricket chirps and, I hope, learn some new Minitab tricks along the way!

Our story starts with Amos Dolbear, an American physicist and inventor who lived in the late 1800s. Dolbear invented several elements of the telephone and was, therefore, attuned to...

The 2012 U.S. presidential campaign is kicking into high gear. And you know what that means.

Political memes will soon be hatching from their electronic eggs, flying through myriad channels of the media, and buzzing annoyingly in your ears.

Memes are kernels of content that spread rapidly across the internet. Love them or hate them, you can’t deny their proliferation or their impact on our mass consciousness.

Remember the 2008 campaign? Lipstick on a pig? Joe the Plumber?

To explore the dynamic life cycle of memes, researchers at Cornell and Stanford tracked the top memes from the 2008...

I’ve been hiding empty beer bottles in my office lately. I hope no one finds them. My boss is in the next office and he's already asked about the occasional "clinking sounds.” I told him I’m practicing castanets for the Minitab talent show.

But it's not what you think. Inspired by the relationship between beer and statistics, I'm conducting an attribute agreement analysis of beer appraisals. Sometimes, an ice-cold, concrete example is the best way to experience the ins and outs of a statistical analysis.

Suppose that Minitab is a brewery and Release 16-Special Edition is a premium beer. The...

Looking for a safe bet?  Here's one: People you know hate statistics.

You may even be one of them. So was I. See, math has never been my strong suit; I could understand the concepts easily enough, but I never liked solving math problems. I used to view anything involving math as an enemy, and avoided it like my life—or livelihood—depended on it. I became a professional writer and editor. I was good at it, and for a long time I was able to get by without doing a whole lot of math beyond the occasional balancing of my checkbook. Statistics wasn't even on my radar.

Then I began writing regularly...

While I spend a good deal of time learning and writing about how companies use Lean Six Sigma practices and Minitab Statistical Software to improve their processes, I also enjoy bringing Lean fundamentals into my everyday life at home.

In fact, maybe I’ve taken the whole “Lean in my everyday life” thing too far:

• I plan my errands around achieving the most efficient route home.

• I planned my wedding using Gantt charts.

• I’ve coaxed my “honey-do” list-hating husband to use poka yoke and JIT Lean production methodology to task out long lists into more manageable daily lists with 3-4 items.

• I slyly use 5...

When you think of design of experiments (DOE), what types of applications come to mind? Do visions of camshafts, widgets, capacitors, resistors, and other industrial thingamabobs dance in your head?  

If so, that's probably because DOE has such powerful and successful applications in manufacturing. Those experiments often involve changing levels of physical factors, such as temperature or pressure or speed or material, and then identifying the settings that produce the optimal effect. 

So a designed experiment can raise the spectre of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in the laBORatory, madly pulling...

Now that Christmas is just days away, research groups are starting to release holiday spending statistics for the 2011 shopping season. I’m an avid shopper (especially online), and I always find these statistics very interesting! 

Because I think statistics are easier to understand when they are graphed, I’ve provided a rundown of some of this season’s shopping statistics using Minitab graphs:

According to research group comScore, U.S. consumers have spent $25 billion online so far this holiday season, which is up 15% from the same time last year. And for key shopping dates (Thanksgiving Day,...