Webinars
Upcoming Webinars | Past Webinars

The Statistics Division offers free webinars on a regular basis as a service to our members. To Register, follow the link.

We hope that you will take advantage of this service!

Stat Division members are also invited to sign up for the Reliability Division Webinar Series.

Upcoming ASQ Statistics Webinars:

Friday, April 27, 2012 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET
A Sample Size of One: Lean and DMAIC with a Child on the Autism Spectrum
REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/319161224

A highly-rated talk from WCQI 2011, this is an engaging and light-hearted journey of how one set of parents utilized Quality Sciences and Lean Six Sigma tools in their home environment to improve the quality of life for them and their son who was diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum at the age of 2 years old.  The discussion takes the participants through how the parents successfully used DMAIC (Define Measure Analyze Improve and Control) to make these differences.

Past Webinars:

Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST (rescheduled from 12/14)
Designing Experiments

There are excellent textbooks at all levels that present the design and analysis of experiments.  This presentation will emphasize the designing of the experiment – how to determine factors to include in the experiments and what roles those factors will play. In addition, what about factors that may have an influence on your results, but are not really process factors? These topics among others will be discussed using examples to illustrate the important role pre-planning  plays in the design of experiments.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST
Sampling Supermarket Stats: An example of statistical engineering in food distribution
By Mark Zabel, President, Straight Line Performance Solutions, LLC
Download PowerPoint slides from the webinar...

What started as a straightforward statistical analysis for a large North American wholesale grocer became a true application of statistical engineering. The team at Straight Line Performance Solutions designed and delivered a solution for a corporate audit team that provided new ways of looking at how they measured and tracked customer quality, what standard practices they followed and how they staffed their auditing facilities to maximize their value. The application involved multiple statistical techniques and touched upon all levels inside and outside the organization; from warehouse auditors, to the C suite, to their customers.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - 2:00 pm ET
Algorithmic Design of Physical Experiments
By Pat Whitcomb

Due to operational or physical considerations, standard (i.e. canned) response surface and mixture designs often prove to be unsuitable for actual experimentation.  In such cases an algorithmic design is required.  I will explore various mathematical properties useful for evaluating alternative algorithmic designs.  To assess “goodness of design” such evaluations must consider the model choice, specific optimality criteria (e.g. D, IV, etc), precision of estimation (fraction of design space), the number of runs (required precision), testing for lack of fit, and so forth.  These issues are considered at practical level – keeping the actual experimenters in mind.  This brings to the forefront such considerations as subject matter knowledge (first principles), factor choice and the feasibility of the experiment design.

TWO-PART SERIES: Monday, Sep 19 & Monday, Sep 26, 2011 - 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
Making Better Decisions...by Understanding Variation
By Wayne Fischer

Series or groups of data differences (or fluctuations) are together called “variation.” Participants will understand what variation is, why and how it occurs, and how to present it so that it may be measured, analyzed, and interpreted properly - not only for reporting results and improving process performance and outcomes, but also for raising staff morale and job satisfaction.

August 17, 2011 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EDT
SPC-based Dashboards
Exploring how to effectively use SPC-based dashboards. Many balanced scorecards employ stoplight charts to judge performance. The process is easily automated using software applications. The operation is quick, efficient and potentially harmful. Harmful? We'll examine why in this webinar.

July 21, 2:00 pm ET
Control Charting and Process Capability Statements: Issues and Resolution
By Forrest Breyfogle

June 9, 12:00 pm-1:00 pm EDT
ASQ RD Webinar Series: How to Graph, Analyze and Compare Sets of Repair Data
By Wayne Nelson

Many products accumulate repeated repairs and repair costs over time.  Analysis of such recurrence data requires special statistical models and methods not covered in basic reliability books.  This tutorial webinar presents a simple and informative model and plot for analyzing data on numbers or costs of repeated repairs of a sample of units.  The plot is illustrated with transmission repair data from preproduction cars on a track test.  This article also presents a method for comparing two such data sets, illustrated with automatic and manual transmissions.  Computer programs that calculate and make the plots and comparisons with confidence limits are surveyed.

Registration is free. Note: we are using a long-distance call-in number or VoIP - thus long distance charges may apply. See www.reliabilitycalendar.org for the full schedule.

Thursday, April 14, 2011 - 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT
Simulation and Six Sigma

Simulation is a powerful and underutilized tool by quality professionals for improving system performance. Simulation receives a very little emphasis in ASQ’s Six Sigma Black Body of Knowledge. The increasing importance of service industries such as healthcare provides opportunities for the use of simulation to improve system performance.

The Webinar outlines the integration of simulation in improvement methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma. Case studies will illustrate the use and benefits of simulation in Lean Six Sigma. A valid simulation model reduces the need for physical experimentation. The DMAIC process aides the development of simulation models, and simulation improves the effectiveness of the DMAIC process.

March 16, 2011
Statistical Engineering: Overview and Discussion
By Roger Hoerl, GE Global Research and Ronald Snee, Snee Associates

Much has been written about how statisticians can be more impactful and influential as a profession. One potential opportunity recently proposed is that society may need us to function more as an engineering discipline in the future, rather than solely as a pure science. One can define engineering as the study of how to best utilize scientific and mathematical principles for the benefit of mankind. In other words, engineers do not focus on advancement of the fundamental laws of science, but rather on how existing science might be best utilized for practical benefit, i.e., putting the "parts" together in novel ways rather than inventing new "parts".

The recent performance of the IBM computer "Watson" on the game show Jeopardy is one such example of an engineering versus a scientific breakthrough. This is not to say that engineers do not perform research, or do not develop theory. Rather, it suggests that engineers’ theoretical developments tend to be oriented towards the question of how to best utilize known science to benefit society. If this need for an emphasis on statistical engineering in addition to statistical science is true, then one could argue that our ability to make this transition will largely determine our future vitality as a discipline. The presenters will discuss the need for enhanced focus on statistical engineering, provide an operational definition, and give tangible examples of its application. They will share their thoughts on how statistical engineering should be integrated with such things as statistical theory, applied statistics, statistical methods, and statistical thinking, in order to view the statistics discipline as a system.