---
title: "Warning: Failing to Display a Pareto Chart May be Hazardous to Your Health"
description: "Warning: Failing to Display a Pareto Chart May be Hazardous to Your Health"
---

[Minitab Blog](https://blog.minitab.com/en/blog)

# [Warning: Failing to Display a Pareto Chart May be Hazardous to Your Health](https://blog.minitab.com/en/blog/statistics-and-quality-data-analysis/warning-failing-to-display-a-pareto-chart-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health)

 Written by [Minitab Blog Editor](https://blog.minitab.com/en/blog/author/minitab-blog-editor) | Sep 16, 2013, 4:00:00 AM

Defects can cause a lot of pain to your customer.

They can also cause a lot of pain inside your body. The picture at right shows my broken right clavicle. *Ouch!*

You might think of it as the defective output from my bicycling process, which needs improvement.

Sitting around all summer cinched up in a foam orthopedic brace hasn’t exactly been wild and wacky 50s-style fun at the beach.

But the injury has had its perks (a box of mouth-watering dark chocolate ganaches from kind Minitab coworkers, for example!)

It’s also provided me with a rare commodity in the year 2013: Plenty of time to think.

Always on the lookout for a quality improvement opportunity, my brain ponders how this defect could have been prevented.

*“If only I had slowed down coming down that hill...”*

*“If only I hadn’t tried to make that sharp 95-degree turn…”*

*“If only I had triple somersaulted with a half twist and landed squarely on my feet with a big smile, like a Romanian gymnast ..."*

## If Only I Had Displayed a Bar Chart in Minitab

If I could turn back the clock, before I hopped on my bicycle, I'd have carefully examined data from the U.S. National Electronic Injury Surveillance System ([NEISS](http://www.cpsc.gov/Research--Statistics/NEISS-Injury-Data/)).

(You may have never heard of the NEISS. It's part of powerful, pervasive federal program that secretly records data every time you stub your big toe and say a naughty word.)

Randomly sampling from the nearly 14,000 bicycle-related injuries recorded by the NEISS in 1991, a federal study sought to identify the main causes of bicycling accidents that resulted in rider injury.

If only I'd *started* my summer by graphically analyzing these data in Minitab...

I'd *like* to say that I was performing a combination death spiral/12 o'clock wheelie with a switchback handstand when an asteroid fragment suddenly fell from space and lodged in my spokes (see the smallest bars at the bottom, representing 7% and 12% of incidents).

But the simple, boring truth is that I'm a klutz of the most common variety.

The primary causes of my accident are shown by the two longest bars on the chart: uneven road surface and excessive speed. (In my case, it was a perfect storm: the road surface switched from dry, compacted soil to asphalt pavement at the bottom of a hill, which allowed me to maximize my speed just as I hit the uneven surface. Whoo-hoo!)

According to the chart, mechanical malfunction is another frequently cited cause of bicycling accidents that lead to rider injury. But that's a broad category. It couldn't have helped me prevent my mishap.

Unless, of course, I'd taken the time to identify the "vital few" mechanical malfunctions behind most injury-causing bicycling accidents...

## If Only I Had Displayed a Pareto Chart in Minitab

Once the types of mechanical malfunctions are displayed in a [Pareto chart](https://blog.minitab.com/blog/understanding-statistics/explaining-quality-statistics-so-your-boss-will-understand-weighted-pareto-charts?hsLang=en), the critical malfunctions involved in most bicycling injuries become easy to spot.

Brakes are the No. 1 mechanical malfunction. Look at the associated ascent of the cumulative line. I'd hate to bike down *that* hill.

And true to the chart, a pair of sneaky, clutching metallic brake pads played a crucial role in my accident:

As I was coming down the hill, I spotted the sharp turn ahead on the road. When I realized I was going too fast to make the turn, I quickly squeezed the brakes. Too little, too late, you might think.  But no: this was too *much*, too late.

As soon as the bike hit uneven surface, the disc brakes locked up. Kinetic energy kindly did the rest, hurling me over the handlebars and into space -- much like an asteroid fragment.

(I landed somewhere in Russia. To much fanfare. After revealing sensitive NEISS data, I am now seeking permanent asylum).

So there you have it.

My life. My fate. Lying hidden in the vast vaults of NEISS data, just waiting to be teased out in a Minitab bar chart or Pareto chart.

Who needs Tarot cards?

[View full post](https://blog.minitab.com/en/blog/statistics-and-quality-data-analysis/warning-failing-to-display-a-pareto-chart-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health)

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