Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 470 views

    Data Analysis - Using Excel

    Uploaded by

    rrberndt6722
    The following examples show how to apply Excel for the graphical analysis of quality data. With minimal knowledge of statistical process control, you can turn a basic line chart into a Shewhart control chart in a flash. The trick is to supplement your data series with additional columns representing upper and lower control limits and a center line.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Data Analysis - Using Excel

    Uploaded by

    rrberndt6722
    470 views9 pages
    The following examples show how to apply Excel for the graphical analysis of quality data. With minimal knowledge of statistical process control, you can turn a basic line chart into a Shewhart control chart in a flash. The trick is to supplement your data series with additional columns representing upper and lower control limits and a center line.

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The following examples show how to apply Excel for the graphical analysis of quality data. With minimal knowledge of statistical process control, you can turn a basic line chart into a Shewhart control chart in a flash. The trick is to supplement your data series with additional columns representing upper and lower control limits and a center line.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    470 views9 pages

    Data Analysis - Using Excel

    Uploaded by

    rrberndt6722
    The following examples show how to apply Excel for the graphical analysis of quality data. With minimal knowledge of statistical process control, you can turn a basic line chart into a Shewhart control chart in a flash. The trick is to supplement your data series with additional columns representing upper and lower control limits and a center line.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 9
    At a glance
    Powered by AI
    The key takeaways are that Excel can be used to perform basic quality analyses and create control charts, histograms, Pareto charts and box-and-whisker plots with some creativity.

    Shewhart control charts monitor process variation over time. The article describes how to supplement data with additional columns for control limits and center line to turn a basic line chart into a Shewhart control chart.

    Box-and-whisker plots can be created in Excel by using its XY scatter plot feature with the five summary statistics (min, percentiles, max) entered in columns and connecting the dots in order.

    Using Excel for Data Analysis

    by William W. Dorner

    Microsoft Excel's capabilities for analyzing


    data are limited only by your creativity.

    Professional statisticians typically have powerful software at their disposal to


    perform advanced analyses and create slick graphs. But many professionals in the
    quality field don't enjoy that luxury. Faced with a limited budget, they must be
    resourceful with the software they already have. Besides, not everyone needs the
    capability to perform nonlinear regression with custom loss functions for maximum
    likelihood! Fortunately, many occasional data analysts already own a versatile
    software capable of providing most basic quality analyses -- Microsoft Excel.

    Skeptical? I don't blame you. The following examples show how to apply Excel for
    the graphical analysis of quality data. The examples range from somewhat obvious
    to downright clever. As it turns out, Excel's capabilities are limited only by your
    creativity.

    Shewhart control charts


    Although most Excel users can create and format simple charts, many don't exploit
    Excel's capabilities for more advanced graphical applications. For example, with
    minimal knowledge of statistical process control, you can turn a basic line chart
    into a Shewhart control chart in a flash. The trick is to supplement your data series
    with additional columns representing upper and lower control limits and a center
    line.

    Figure 1 depicts some hypothetical data from a machining operation. The


    characteristic of interest is the diameter of a brass stud. The sample averages (n=5)
    appear in column F, and the sample ranges appear in column G. To obtain the
    control limits and center line for an x-bar chart, first compute the grand average of
    the data. Enter the following formula into cell F27: =AVERAGE(F2:F26). Then
    compute the average range by copying the formula from F27 to G27.
    With the groundwork laid, you're ready to compute the control limits and center
    line. First, put the following in cell I2: =$F$27. Note that this formula uses an
    absolute reference, as denoted by the dollar signs. Recall that the formula for the
    upper control limit of an x-bar chart is UCL = x + A2R. In this example, the sample
    size is 5 so, consulting my handy table of control chart constants, I find that A2 is
    0.577. In cell H2, type: =I2+0.577*$G$27. Similarly, the lower control limit will
    be LCL = x - A2R; so in cell J2, type: =I2-0.577*$G$27. You've now entered all of
    the formulas and can proceed to copy cells H2:J2 to cells H3:J26. Voilà, you have
    control limits and a center line! (See Figure 2.)
    To obtain the x-bar chart, first highlight cells F1:F26. Because the control limits are
    not in contiguous columns, you will have to hold down the Control key as you also
    highlight cells H1:J26. Next use the ChartWizard as you normally would to create a
    line chart of the four data series. You'll find that columns H, I and J will provide
    horizontal lines on your chart representing the UCL, center line and LCL,
    respectively. All that's left now is to format your chart as you like it. For example, I
    prefer to make the following changes:

    Eliminate the grey background and border around the chart.

    Change the UCL and LCL lines to bold dashed lines with no markers.

    Change the center line to a lighter solid line with no markers.

    Change the x-bar data series to a bold solid line with large visible markers.

    Tweak the fonts, axes, titles, headers, footers and margins, as desired.

    The resulting control chart is shown in Figure 3.

    Similar steps would be followed to generate the accompanying R chart to monitor


    variability. This method isn't elegant. Nor is it intended to be used on a grand scale
    to implement plantwide online SPC. Instead, it is a nifty way to create a quick
    control chart. And thanks to Excel's versatile formatting options, you can make it
    look as if it were generated using a specialized SPC software package.
    Pareto charts

    Another popular quality tool that's a snap to produce using Excel is a Pareto chart.
    If you already have your data summarized, as in Figure 4, you can obtain a Pareto
    chart by following these steps:

    Sort your data in descending order by frequency of occurrence.

    Create Percentage (e.g., in cell C2, type: =B2/$B$7) and Cumulative Percentage
    (e.g., in cell D2, type: =C2. In cell D3, type: =D2+C3) columns, as shown in Figure
    5.

    Once again using the Control key to select noncontiguous columns, highlight
    the Category, Percentage and Cumulative Percentage columns. In the example, this
    corresponds to cells A1:A6 and C1:D6.

    Use the ChartWizard to generate a Combination Bar Chart with both left and
    right axes.

    After adding some titles and customizing the formats, you get a chart like the one
    in Figure 6. Note that the height of each bar references the left axis, whereas the
    cumulative percentage line references the right axis.
    Perhaps your data are not summarized but are instead in a list where each category
    has a numerical code (see Figure 7). Fear not! Excel has an even easier way to
    create a histogram using its Data Analysis ToolPak.

    Not all Excel users are familiar with the Data Analysis ToolPak because it is an
    Add-In, meaning that it does not appear in your Tools menu by default -- you must
    put it there. It contains a wealth of statistical tools that will come in handy for any
    data analyst, such as: descriptive statistics, regression analysis, analysis of variance
    (ANOVA) and random number generation.

    To load the Data Analysis ToolPak, select Tools and then Add-Ins. Click on the
    appropriate box and select OK. After a few seconds, the Add-In will be loaded. To
    activate the Data Analysis ToolPak, select Tools and then Data Analysis. A pop-up
    window will appear listing all of the data analysis functions.

    Scroll down, highlight Histogram, then click OK. A pop-up window will appear. In
    the field titled Input Range, enter the cell range containing the numerical category
    codes of your data (select M2 through M11). In the Bin Range field, enter the cell
    range containing the list of all category codes, or "bins," you want to be tabulated
    and charted (select N2 through N6). Next, select where you would like Excel to
    deposit the finished output. Finally, check all three boxes at the bottom of the
    pop-up window: Pareto, Cumulative Percentage and Chart Output. When you click
    OK, Excel will generate a tabular summary and a Pareto chart.

    Simple box-and-whisker plots

    One statistical tool notably absent from Excel is the box-and-whisker plot. As
    designed by Mary Eleanor Spear, the box-and-whisker plot was originally called a
    range bar1. Renowned statistician John Tukey later modified the display and
    coined the name box-and-whisker2, which some shorten to boxplot.

    The simple box-and-whisker plot provides a vivid snapshot of a data set using just
    five statistics: the minimum, 25th percentile, median, 75th percentile and
    maximum. Tukey refers to the 25th and 75th percentiles as the hinges of the data
    set and the minimum and maximum as the extremes.

    A simple box-and-whisker plot appears in Figure 8. The plot consists of a box


    drawn with its left and right edges at the hinges. A third vertical line spans the box
    at the median. Finally, whiskers extend from each hinge to its respective extreme.

    When interpreting a box-and-whisker plot, you can obtain a lot of information


    quickly. The plot depicts two common measures of variation -- the range and the
    interquartile range (IQR). The box contains the middle 50 percent of the data, so it
    is easy to see where the middle of the distribution lies. The box-and-whisker plot
    depicts one common measure of central tendency -- the median.

    The plot also illuminates the shape of the distribution. The location of the median
    line and the relative length of the whiskers help indicate how symmetrical the data
    are. When the median lies far from the center of the box or if one whisker is much
    longer than the other, you know that the distribution is skewed to some extent.

    It wouldn't take much for Microsoft to add the box-and-whisker plot to Excel.
    Until they do, there is a simple way for Excel users to create professional-looking
    box-and-whisker plots.

    The trick is to use Excel's charting capabilities in a way that they were never
    intended to be used. But first, you must obtain the five statistics necessary to
    construct the box-and-whisker plot. Suppose the data set resides in cells A1:A50.
    The Excel functions you'll need to use are:

    =MIN(A1:A50), to obtain the minimum

    =PERCENTILE(A1:A50,0.25), to obtain the 25th percentile

    =MEDIAN(A1:A50), to obtain the median


    =PERCENTILE(A1:A50,0.75), to obtain the 75th percentile

    =MAX(A1:A50), to obtain the maximum

    Next, enter these numbers into the center column (X) of a spreadsheet template like
    the one in Figure 9. The rightmost column (Y) contains constants that will also be
    used to construct the plot. You should not shuffle the rows for convenience -- the
    order of the data entries does matter.

    Having entered the data, use Excel's XY (Scatter) plot with connecting lines and no
    point markers. Excel plots the XY coordinates, then "connects the dots" in
    sequential order as they appear in the spreadsheet. With some customization, you
    can create a professional-looking box-and-whisker plot. In fact, Figure 8 was
    created using Excel.

    Variations on a theme
    The value of box-and-whisker plots increases when used to compare multiple data
    sets. By adding additional series to the Excel XY plot, you can easily obtain
    multiple box-and-whisker plots, as in Figure 10. The multiple plots allow easy
    comparisons between distributions of data.

    Furthermore, Figure 10 illustrates the notched box-and-whisker plot, a more


    advanced statistical tool first proposed by McGill, Tukey and Larsen3. Here the
    notches are constructed about the median so that notches which don't overlap
    represent significant differences between medians (with about 95% confidence).
    For example, in Figure 10, Design A clearly exhibits a significantly lower median
    yield strength than designs B or C. With minor modifications to the scheme
    presented in Figure 9, you can use Excel to obtain such plots.
    Virtually endless possibilities
    If you are already an Excel user, think twice before investing in expensive
    statistical software. With some creativity, you can usually expand Excel's
    capabilities to meet special needs. Excel's statistical capabilities are impressive, and
    its graphical possibilities are virtually unlimited.

    With a little effort, you can create useful control charts, Pareto charts, histograms
    and box-and-whisker plots. Granted, you could eventually reach a point of
    diminishing marginal returns, beyond which you may wish to purchase more
    powerful statistical software. But for the occasional number cruncher, Excel is
    likely to fulfill all of your graphical needs, and then some

    References
    1. Spear, M.E. 1952. Charting Statistics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    2. Tukey, J.W. 1977. Exploratory Data Analysis (First Edition). Reading, MA:
    Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

    3. McGill, R.; J.W. Tukey; and W.A. Larsen. 1978. "Variations of Box Plots." The
    American Statistician. 32. 12-16. For the interested reader, McGill et al.
    recommend constructing notches as follows: Median ± 1.7 x [(1.25 x IQR)/(1.35 x
    sample size)]

    About the author


    William W. Dorner is a senior quality/process engineer at Best Lock Corp. in
    Indianapolis. He is a member of ASQ and ASA.
    For more information, you may e-mail Dorner at [email protected].

    Copyright 1997 QCI International. All rights [Homepage]


    reserved. Quality Digest can be reached by phone at [Current
    (916) 893-4095. Issue]
    e-mail [ISO 9000
    Quality Please contact our Webmaster with questions or Database]
    Digest comments. [Daily News]
    [Phil's
    Journal]
    [Quality
    Leadership]
    [Past Issues]
    [Quality Web]
    [Information]
    [Media Kit]
    [Classified
    Ads]
    [Subscribe]
    [Guestbook]

    You might also like