Tips and Techniques for Statistics and Quality Improvement

In a webinar next week I’ll be sharing tricks for Classification and Regression Trees (CART) in Minitab Statistical Software. We’ll explore CART results, set penalties for certain data conditions, and discuss best practices for working with your results. Today, I thought I’d give you a taste of what you can expect. And please join me next week to see me demonstrate it!

Think about the last time you flew on an airplane. How was that experience? Most people can probably think of a couple aspects that affected their past flights, both positively and negatively, and ultimately shaped their satisfaction.

When it comes to air travel, passenger satisfaction is a key metric for airlines. Just knowing your passengers are satisfied is good, but knowing why they are satisfied is even better....

Imagine your new car breaks down after driving 60 miles. The engine light turns on and your vehicle must now be towed to be serviced. This is not only a warranty issue but also a field problem due to lack of product reliability.

Reliability is defined as the quality of a product over time and statistically speaking it is the probability of a product not to fail during a defined period of time.

Business around the globe has changed immensely over the past year. Organizations continue to rethink their strategies and become more digital in nature. Accelerating and maintaining this digital transformation, however is key.

According to McKinsey & Company, only 14 percent of companies launching digital transformations have seen sustained and material performance improvements¹. So how do savvy businesses and...

Whether you're an analyst, a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a researcher, a statistics student or all of the above, at some point you will need to work with data that involve either dates, times, or both. Do you know where all of your date/time tools are? Let’s take a quick trip through Minitab Statistical Software and see what it has to offer for date/time data:

Earlier this year, as I was thinking about all the improvement projects on my needs and wants list, I was unsure where to start. Which projects should be tackled first? Did I capture everything in my potential projects list? And once I decide which projects to schedule, how can I keep on track and visualize progress?

A staple in project management, RACI charts help team members understand their roles for project deliverables – breaking down in each step who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. When you articulate those four levels of input and decision-making ability and assign them to different team members at the start of a project, it can help everyone execute projects more smoothly.

It's no secret recent worldwide events have pushed us all to become more agile in our operations and respond to changes in new ways. Medical device manufacturers have come into the spotlight and are especially vital.

– This blog was co-written by Minitab Area Marketing Manager Abbie Wong.When the effects of COVID-19 caused medical device shortages worldwide, many manufacturers rushed to pivot their production lines to meet demand. Although the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) temporarily loosened guidelines for some products like hand sanitizer, there is still a standard approval path medical device manufacturers...

No one could argue steel is not strong and reliable. It is a go-to material for crafting a long-lasting and durable product. But when your product is made of such strong material, you are going to need even stronger tools to make the product itself, not to mention a strong grasp on your data and the insights your data can provide on when machines will need to be repaired or replaced.