Tag Archives: Statistics

Factorial Designed Experiment Aim

Multivariate experiments are a very powerful management tool to learn and improve performance. Experiments in general, and designed factorial experiments in particular, are dramatically underused by managers. A question on LinkedIn asks? When doing a DOE we select factors with … Continue reading

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Science, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to Manage What You Can’t Measure

In Out of the Crisis, page 121, Dr. Deming wrote: the most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable (Lloyd S. Nelson, director of statistical methods for the Nashua corporation), but successful management must nevertheless take … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Actionable Metrics

Metrics are valuable when they are actionable. Think about what will be done if certain results are shown by the data. If you can’t think of actions you would take, it may be that metric is not worth tracking. Metrics … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Statistical Engineering Links Statistical Thinking, Methods and Tools

In Closing the Gap Roger W. Hoerl and Ronald D. Snee lay out a sensible case for focusing on statistical engineering. We’re not suggesting that society no longer needs research in new statistical techniques for improvement; it does. The balance … Continue reading

Posted in Science, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Taxes per Person by Country

I think that the idea that data lies is false, and that such a notion is commonly held a sign of lazy intellect. You can present data in different ways to focus on different aspects of a system. And you … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Economics, Management | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Soren Bisgaard

Soren Bisgaard died earlier this month of cancer. Soren was a student of my father’s who shared the commitment to making a difference in people’s lives by using applied statistics properly. I know this seem odd to many (I tried … Continue reading

Posted in Psychology, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Highlights from Recent George Box Speech

The JMP blog has posted some highlights from George Box’s presentation at Discovery 2009 [the broken link was removed] Infusing his entire presentation with humor and fascinating tales of his memories, Box focused on sequential design of experiments. He attributed … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Design of Experiments, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Statistical Learning as the Ultimate Agile Development Tool by Peter Norvig

Interesting lecture on Statistical Learning as the Ultimate Agile Development Tool by Peter Norvig. The webcast is likely to be of interest to a fairly small segment of readers of this blog. But for geeks it may be interesting. He … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Software Development, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Communicating with the Visual Display of Data

Anscombe’s quartet: all four sets are identical when examined statistically, but vary considerably when graphed. Image via Wikipedia. ___________________ Anscombe’s quartet comprises four datasets that have identical simple statistical properties, yet are revealed to be very different when inspected graphically. … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Quality tools, Statistics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

YouTube Uses Multivariate Experiment To Improve Sign-ups 15%

Google does a great job of using statistical and engineering principles to improve. It is amazing how slow we are to adopt new ideas but because we are it provides big advantages to companies like Google that use concepts like … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Design of Experiments, Google, IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Science, Software Development, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments