Run chart

Data Visualisation II

Last week, I started the tools used in Operational Excellence with the Graphical Summary. It gives the first impressions of the data. It provides a general picture of how the distribution looks like. As we want to go further, we should examine how data behaves over time.

Minitab offers two options: I prefer the Run Chart over the Time Series Chart, as it is only a chart with no hypothesis testing behind it. In the Time Series Chart, we rely on our eyes. We may identify patterns, but we can not be sure about them. On the contrary, the Run Chart checks for possible factors of patterns: Clustering, Mixtures, Trends and Oscillation, as you can see in the Figure below.

Everything is about pattern recognition. If we find the patterns, we can identify the driving factors. As I previously wrote, if we complete the Measure phase with the right rigour (proper quality and quantity data for the well-selected variables), data analysis is straightforward, and creating a working solution should not be extremely difficult.

As with the Graphical Summary, I do not draw any conclusions, as I can not trust the data (pls. see MSA and sampling), but I may see directions where I search for the root causes. It may give hints for what input data I should collect.

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