Beginners please

["Mark Erickson" <MERICK@state.wy.us>]

     In the UKDN #12a: WED100 issue; 14 Oct 00    [ UK Deming Newsletter]  there included the following excerpt:  

>    Beginners please
>From next month I'd like UKDN to have a new section -- Beginners please ?  it will be aimed at those of >our readers who have little or no knowledge of Deming and his approach. This was sparked by a >reader who wrote:  What is SoPK?  If you feel that you fall into that category please let me know what >questions are at the top of your mind.  I'd like to kick this off with three short exchanges between >individual starting out on Deming Road and experienced Deming consultants.  Let me know if you >would like to be one of the three in either category.  Thanks  Alan  -- editor@wed.waitrose.com 

     I think it would be a good idea to have a beginners thread on the den.  I subscribed to the den after experiencing the red bead experiment in a supervisory training course.  I thought that insights gained from this experience and the den would be useful both in my field of work as an employment analyst and in bringing up some items for discussion in a Sociology course that I teach at the local college outreach center in my small community.

     In my case, I have a basic understanding of statistics: mead, medium, mode, bell curves, standard deviations, etc. but I am somewhat lost as to what six-sigma means.  Also, why is there never any discussion of chi-squares?  For example, if I am concerned about probabilities of success in certain career fields based on levels of education and math/reading test scores, aptitude test scores, interest inventories, etc. that a client achieves on a standardized test, wouldn't a chi-square distribution give me the best information to help determine the best training programs for my clients?  What about adding socio-economic status, race, gender, religion?  If I were to study six-sigma, would it help me with these questions, i.e. provide me with a better indicatior of success probabilites than a chi-square would?  If so, what additional data, if any, would I need besides current level of education, test score  and employment follow-up data?  

     I'm sure I will be showing my ignorance by leaving out some important consideration in the above statistics question but any comments would be appreciated.  Also, in general, what does everybody think about the beginners thread?

     Respectfully,

Mark Erickson
e-mail: merick@state.wy.us
phone: (307) 789-9802
fax:       (307) 789-5625