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Parity in the NFL? Nope! It’s the Sample Size!
It's almost Super Bowl Sunday, and this year’s matchup pits the Baltimore Ravens against the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are no huge surprise, as they were favored in both of their playoff games....
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Violations of the Assumptions for Linear Regression: Residuals versus the...
Lionel Loosefit has been hauled to court for violating the assumptions of linear regression. On Day 3 of the trial, the court examines the allegation that the residuals in Mr. Loosefit's model exhibit...
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Trend Analysis: Super Bowl Ticket Prices
Tickets to attend the Super Bowl are among the most coveted sports tickets in the world, and the high average price for even nose-bleed seats illustrates how low supply and high demand can result in...
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The Best Super Bowl Commercials of 2013, Plotted in Minitab
Various commercials valiantly vied for the attention and dollars of football Super Bowl commercial fans on Sunday. The game was decided objectively (or by the referees), but the drama of which...
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Flu Shot Followup: Assessing the Long-Term Benefits of Flu Vaccination
In my last post, I wrote about the 60% effectiveness rate for flu shots that news media commonly report. The effectiveness is actually a relative measure of the reduction in your flu risk if you’re...
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They Call Them "Free" Throws For a Reason
When Penn State guard Jermaine Marshall stepped to the line to take two free throws with 0:27 remaining against Ohio State, it didn’t really matter whether he made the shots. The game was already out...
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A Story-based Approach to Learning Statistics (and Statistical Software)
Want to learn more about analyzing data? Try taking a page from Aesop's book. Well...really, I'm suggesting taking multiple pages from Minitab's book, but my suggestion stems from an idea that Aesop...
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Cost of Quality: Well, hello, my old, complex friend….
As I sat down to examine Cost of Quality (COQ) at Minitab, I flashed back to my CQE exam almost 20 years ago. I can still vividly remember staring down at a particularly difficult Cost of Quality...
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Making Statistics Sweet on Valentine's Day
Planning on giving a bag of M&M's to your sweetie this Valentine's Day? Well, you can woo your Valentine with not only the gift of candy, but also the statistics behind those candy-coated chocolate...
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Performing DOE for Defect Reduction
Lean Six Sigma and process excellence leaders are often asked to “remove defects” from products and processes. This can be quite a challenge! Lou Johnson, senior Minitab technical trainer and mentor,...
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Is This the Craziest College Basketball Season Ever?
The last few weeks have been pretty crazy in college basketball. In the first 13 days of February, nine different teams ranked in the Top 10 have lost. And had Duke not squeaked by Boston College last...
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Violations of the Assumptions for Linear Regression: Closing Arguments and...
Lionel Loosefit has been hauled to court for violating the assumptions of regression analysis. On the last day of the trial, the prosecution and defense present their closing arguments. And the fate...
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3 Common (and Dangerous!) Statistical Misconceptions
, Have you ever been a victim of a statistical misconception that’s affected how you’ve interpreted your analysis? Like any field of study, statistics has some common misconceptions that can trip up...
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Where to find meteorites, the Pareto chart way
It’s an amazing thing when a mass of rock and iron streaks through space and enters Earth’s atmosphere. So naturally, the Chelyabinsk meteor has attracted a great deal of attention. We’re fascinated by...
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Why Statistics Is Important
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." I’m sure you’ve heard this most vile expression, which was popularized by Mark Twain among others. This dastardly phrase impugns the...
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Lightsaber Capability Analysis: Is Our Process In Control?
In my last post, we talked about using statistical tools to identify the right distribution of our lightsaber manufacturing data. Now that we have our data in Minitab along with a specific distribution...
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For Want of an FMEA, the Empire Fell
by Matthew Barsalou, guest bloggerFor want of a nail the shoe was lost,For want of a shoe the horse was lost,For want of a horse the rider was lostFor want of a rider the battle was lostFor want of a...
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Forget Statistical Assumptions - Just Check the Requirements!
One of the most poorly understood concepts in the use of statistics is the idea of assumptions. You've probably encountered many of these assumptions, such as "data normality is an assumption of the...
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How to Use Value Stream Maps in Healthcare
While value stream mapping, or VSM, is a key tool used in many Lean Six Sigma projects for manufacturing, it’s also widely used in healthcare. Value stream mapping can help you map, visualize, and...
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Helping Beginners Learn about Process Variation using Miles Per Gallon
by Robb Richardson, guest blogger One of the things that I love most about my job is that I get to help educate, coach, and develop others on topics such as continuous improvement and data analysis. In...
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