Greg Fox
People say that I overthink everything. I’ve given this assertion considerable thought, and I don’t believe that it’s true. After all, how can any one person possibly overthink every possible thing...
Beth Savage
The 2016 Masters Tournament is in the history books. Jordan Spieth had what some are calling an epic meltdown on the final nine holes of the tournament, and in a come-from-behind victory, Danny...
Bruno Scibilia
In yesterday’s column, I discussed how a DOE was chosen to optimize a chemical-mechanical polishing process in the microelectronics industry. This important process improved the plant’s final...
Patrick Runkel
About a year ago, a reader asked if I could try to explain degrees of freedom in statistics. Since then, I’ve been circling around that request very cautiously, like it’s some kind...
Bruno Scibilia
Sponsored Content
Suppose that on your way to a summer holiday resort (a very distant place), your car breaks down. You might just call roadside assistance and wait for your car to be towed to a...
Davis Balestracci
In part one yesterday, we looked at stats of the Boston Red Sox bullpen, a typical example of baseball’s tendency to find special cause in just about anything. The Boston Globe article on which...
Davis Balestracci
In honor of baseball season, I’m going to apply some simple statistical thinking to my favorite sport in a two-part series today and tomorrow. I want anyone to be able to enjoy this, so I’ll mark...
Jim Frost
P -values have been around for nearly a century, and they’ve been the subject of criticism since their origin. In recent years, the debate over p-values has risen to a fever pitch. In particular,...
William A. Levinson
Experiments that might require a handful of real-number measurements (variables data) could need hundreds or more attribute data for comparable power, i.e., the ability to determine whether an...
Donald J. Wheeler
Context involves both the background for the data and how the data behave. This behavior of the data is most easily seen by using two complementary graphs—the running record and the histogram. Here I...
Gilles Hilary
Phil used to be a very senior financial executive. When asked for a number, he would typically provide with a rough ballpark answer, such as, “It’s about 5 percent.” He’d then be peppered with...
Davis Balestracci
April Fool’s Day (today) and the opening of baseball season (this Sunday) are upon us. To mark the first event, I’ll let my distinguished colleague Donald Wheeler make some eloquent and crucial...
Mike Micklewright
When considering any effort toward performance improvement, you should always start by looking at the organization’s principles and culture, and making sure these are aligned so they not only...
Patrick Runkel
I live with a German national, who often tells me that we Americans spend way too much of our lives at work. He also frequently comments that we work much less efficiently than Germans do, during...
John Elliott
Fly-fishing, one of my favorite hobbies, is a lot like process improvement. Here’s how: Fly-fishing seems very simple—you throw a line in the water and wait for dinner. Of course, it’s much more...
Eston Martz
There’s plenty of noisy disagreement about the state of healthcare, but when you look beyond the controversies, a great deal of common ground exists.
Many agree that the way we’ve been doing...
John Flaig
Sometimes when authors try to make a technical concept more understandable, it’s simplified but unfortunately, less accurate.
For example, when the developers of Six Sigma wanted to explain...
Inderjit Arora
Objective auditing has always been a challenge, and this is especially true now for ISO 9001:2015 audits. To better meet customer expectations, fundamental changes have been introduced to the...
Greg Fox
Mind the gap. It’s is an important concept to bear in mind when traveling on the Tube in London, the T in Boston, the Metro in Washington, D.C., and other subways. But how many of us remember to...
NIST
NIST scientists have devised and improved a prototype instrument the size of a loaf of bread that can substantially increase the accuracy of length measurements in commerce. Perhaps surprisingly, it...
