Douglas Allen
It’s a cold winter’s night in northern New Hampshire. You go out to the woodshed to grab a couple more logs, but as you approach, your hear a rustling inside the shed. You’ve gotten close enough to...
Donald J. Wheeler
Story update 9/8/2015: There was an error in the data set for columns "Skew" and "Kurt" in figure 7. The error has been corrected.
Clear thinking and simplicity of analysis...
Joel Smith
Just 100 years ago, very few statistical tools were available and the field was largely unknown. Since then, there has been an explosion in available tools, as well as ever-increasing...
John Flaig
I have discussed the economics of project management numerous times in presentations all over the country, and based on the response to my message, I have to conclude that many people just don...
Donald J. Wheeler
Some commonly held ideas about skewed probability models are incorrect. These incorrect ideas are one source of complexity and confusion regarding the analysis of data. By examining the basic...
Joel Smith
Last month, the ESPN series Outside the Lines reported on baseball pitchers suffering serious injuries from being struck in the head by line drives, and the efforts that Major League...
Davis Balestracci
This is a continuation of my last column, which I’ve written to honor my late dad who loved golf. As promised, let’s look at the Masters golf tournament final four-round scores for the 55 players...
Donald J. Wheeler
While the computations for a process behavior chart are completely general and very robust, the secret to using a process behavior chart effectively lies in the art of rational sampling and...
John Flaig
The classic version of FMEA is an engineering tool for quality and reliability improvement through project prioritization. It was formally released by the U.S. government with MIL-P-1629 in 1949...
Davis Balestracci
To celebrate Father’s Day in the United States (June 21 this year), I’m going to use this and my next column to honor my late dad by using a game he loved—golf—to teach some very basic statistics...
Patrick Runkel
I’ve never understood the fascination with selfies.
Maybe it’s because I'm over 50. After surviving the slings and arrows of a half a century on Earth, the minute or two I spend in front of the...
Patrick Runkel
It’s usually not a good idea to rely solely on a single statistic to draw conclusions about your process. Do that, and you could fall into the clutches of the “duck-rabbit” illusion shown below.
If...
Donald J. Wheeler
While the computations for a process behavior chart are completely general and very robust, the secret to using a process behavior chart effectively lies in the art of rational sampling and rational...
Dawn Keller
Generally speaking, I have a problem with authority. I don’t like being told what to do or how to do it. I’m not proud of that.
I recall debating with my high school trigonometry teacher regarding...
Donald J. Wheeler
Parts per million (ppm) is part of the language of Six Sigma. It pervades the sales pitch and is used in all sorts of computations as a measure of quality. Yet what are the rules of arithmetic and...
Donald J. Wheeler
The first axiom of data analysis is: “No data have meaning apart from their context.” Yet we all encounter measures that have been dreamed up without regard for either context or use. This column...
Patrick Runkel
Right now I’m enjoying my daily dose of morning joe. As the steam rises off the cup, the dark, rich liquid triggers a powerful enzyme cascade that jump-starts my brain and central nervous system,...
CorDEX Instruments
NFPA 70E, full title “NFPA 70E—“Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace,” is a standard written by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). NFPA 70E was created primarily to...
Dawn Keller
Juvenile idiopathic scoliosis. That was the diagnosis given to my then 8-year-old daughter last January. In short, it means that she’s young (under 10), she exhibits an abnormal amount of spinal...
Donald J. Wheeler
Author clarification--3/5/2015:It appears that I somewhat overstated my case in this article. I had forgotten that there are some families of distributions where we can estimate the shape of a...
