Measurement and Statistics : Data Quality
Balancing Act
With common quality methods and standards in place, manufacturing organizations share a daunting challenge: an increased volume of electronic and paper-based data collected during process development and manufacturing....
Expert Answers: April 2013
Root cause analysis tools ... Calibration data for a fee ......
Statistics Roundtable: Inquiry on Pedigree
THE MEDIA FREQUENTLY report on examples of situations in which results from statistical studies are not reproducible. A recent article in the New York Times reported how a sophisticated study went wrong because of poor data quality....
One Good Idea: Complicated Comparison
Limited data availability complicates an assessment of whether two populations are comparable. A statistical tolerance interval (TI) can be used to set the comparability criteria....
Statistics Roundtable: More is Not Always Better
All other things being equal, if offered a choice between small or large sample sizes, the larger sample size is preferred. Or is it?...
3.4 per Million: Data Dependability
As quality or Six Sigma professionals, we have been taught to address the issue of data accuracy and integrity from the statistical viewpoint....
Statistics Roundtable: It's Not Always What You Say, But How You Say It
The Youden plot has proven extremely useful in the analysis and interpretation of data generated by interlaboratory studies. It’s always easy to understand and motivates others to take action if...
Back to Basics: Data Collection Guidelines: the People Element
Collecting high quality data is essential to the success of any project, process improvement or new product development....
Column: Back to Basics: Collecting Data for Root Cause Analysis
Collecting Data for Root Cause Analysis by James J. Rooney and Lee N. Vanden Heuvel actual evidence derived from data gathering activities is the basis for all valid conclusions and recommendations from a root cause analysis. Management can analyze the ...
Column: Statistics Roundtable: Another Data Mining Tool
In this column, we introduce the use of a Hotelling's T2 statistic as a data mining tool for large and small data sets composed of many variables. We will show how the T2 statistic, based on a single p-dimensional observation vector (x1, x2, ..., xp),...
Reliability Analysis by Failure Mode
Reliability improvement should be a major consideration when conducting product life data analysis. One method of determining the failure mode responsible for failure is to perform separate analyses for each mode and combine the results, as opposed to...
Measure for Six Sigma Success
Measurements, despite their proven historical significance, are still viewed as the cost of doing business and as production bottlenecks. In the new "measure for Six Sigma" world, measurements become a direct production activity resulting in a true...
Planning Data Configuration for Statistical Analysis
A greater availability of electronically collected data has allowed problems to be solved on the basis of data rather than intuition. The combination of quality initiatives with computerized data analysis packages means increased utilization of...
Six Sigma, E-Commerce Pose New Challenges
Companies feel a need to become more flexible and ready to respond to rapid changes due to the growth of e-commerce. Corporate systems for responding to such changes have the same role as that of the central nervous system in the human body. The...
It's All About Improving Performance
Teams should be aware of their problem solving and decision making methods. This meta-problem solving and meta-decision making information can improve team performance of its four basic activities: define the problem; collect data to verify root...
More, Better, Faster from Total Quality Effort
The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle facilitated breakthrough improvement at Procter & Gamble's (P&G) health care over-the-counter (OTC) clinical division. The Plan step had four components. First, apply the principles of total quality. These included:...
A Personal Quality Improvement Program for Golfers
For long-term quality improvement, golfers must be committed to: acknowledging the need to improve; having a zero tolerance for errors; and using the coaching assistance of a golf teaching professional. Then they can apply a five-step quality...
American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice
February 16–18 | Orlando, FL
Visit www.amstat.org/meetings/csp/2012/index.cfm.
ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference
February 27–28 | Phoenix, AZ
Visit http://asq.org/conferences/six-sigma.
ASQ members exchange comments, suggestions, questions and ideas inspired by articles or letters in Quality Progress.
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