As I titled this column, I was reminded that W. Edwards Deming liked to say, “The most important numbers are unknown and unknowable.” But some numbers are important, and most managers do not know how to manage them. I don’t want to sound like a complainer, but this issue has been close to my heart for nearly 30 years, and it arose powerfully for me as I was preparing to teach a statistics course that I hadn’t taught in an academic environment before. I’ll share my story so you can get a sense of my biases and passions for this topic.
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Back in the 1980's, I also
I agree with Steve's comment
I agree with Steve's comment on using Dr. Wheeler's books and methods. I took his week long class and it really opens your eyes on how simple using process behavior charts can be and the results generated.
Refreshing article!
Great observations David and I would like to say something witty and intelligent, but you have stated the situation all too well.
Control charts at their core are simple, visual tools, but without the management support to hold everyone accountable, we are indeed heading for dire straits. How can a manager hold their employees accountable if he/she does not recognize the value of the tool. We can never hope to achieve success for the individual, departmental and company if we can effectively problem solve and understand all the weaknesses within our processes. Ego, fear, politics and ignorance debilitate use and effectiveness of control charts and SPC operational arena. When you hear peoople say things like,"I was forced to come to this training" or "HR told me I need this training for an up and coming audit", it speaks to the disconnect between the goals of the company, the management and the employees. My own training and experiences are mix of success and failure, but I recall with great clarity the qualities of the finest managers I had the priviledge to work for and worth with on several differenct projects. These successful leaders were confident, mentors, coachs, decisive, self-disclipined and always held their team accountable.
Sincerely,
Bob
Similar story
Hi, David, great story. I, too, have been appalled at what we're expected to teach as "business statistics." I taught an MBA course for a couple of years. It was a good refresher for enumerative studies, and had some very interesting problems for conditional probability and chi-square contingency analysis, but most of the rest of it was useless for managers, except as an intro to some of the concepts. The textbook had one chapter on control charts, and it was terrible...limits based on three standard deviations, etc. As a part-time adjunct, though, I had no input at all into what was taught. I steered those students who seemed interested in further study to Wheeler's books (especially "Making Sense of Data").
If you want an example, you might look at my QD article on Red-Green Dashboards. It tells the story of how I was able to switch a manager from using just red or green to using SPC. That might be interesting for your students. If you need more details or data, I'd be happy to provide them.
Statistics for Management
David, I provide statistics consulting for pharmaceutical consulting. I have learned from experience that expressing or reporting statistical analysis by graphical methods communicates best with management. Providing understanding of assumptions, the terms level of confidence, power, type 1 and 2 errors, and false acceptance and false rejection rates gives management the tools to understand their processes. Repeatability (precision), systemic bias and variance components are important for management to master - and I demonstrate them graphically.
Regards,
Stan Alekman
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