MiniTab Overview and Exercises
MiniTab Overview and Exercises
MiniTab Overview and Exercises
Today’s quality improvement projects are more complex than ever. Leading methodologies such as Six
Sigma™ require that they be rooted in an analysis of hard data and produce measurable results, and as their
size and scope have grown, so too has the amount of work required to manage all the people and
communications involved.
The most effective quality improvement projects are the ones in which a thorough analysis of hard data drives
the conception, execution, and evaluation of each step. Regardless of the process you are trying to improve –
or even the industry in which you are working – you must be able to apply the right statistical methods and
trust that your results are accurate.
To succeed, you need a statistical software package that contains all the methods you might use, makes it easy
to understand and access them, and helps you illustrate and interpret your results.
The software that helps students understands statistics and acquires skills employers want at the same time.
Most statistical analyses require a series of steps, often directed by background knowledge or by the subject
area you are investigating.
It illustrates the analysis steps in a typical Minitab session:
Ease of Use
Intuitive design is simple to learn
Menus and tools arranged logically, matching textbooks and training materials
Project Manager organizes analysis
ReportPad™ for generating reports
Easily export output to PowerPoint and Word
Clear, comprehensive Help system
StatGuide™ explains output
Tool-specific tutorials
Glossary of statistical terms
Methods and formulas used in calculations
Smart Dialog Boxes™ remember recent settings
Hundreds of sample data sets
Available in multiple languages
Increased speed and improved performance
Assistant
Menu that easily leads you through your analysis
Helps you choose the right tool using an interactive decision tree
Includes guidelines to ensure your analysis is successful
Basic Statistics
Descriptive statistics
One-sample Z test
One- and two-sample t-tests, paired t-test
One and two proportions tests
One- and two-sample Poisson rate tests
Graphics
State-of-the-art graphics engine
Pictorial galleries simplify graph creation
Interactively edit attributes (axes, labels, etc.)
Recreate custom graphs with new data
Easily place multiple graphs on one page
Display data for different variables or groups in panels
Information display tools: tooltips, crosshairs, plant flags
Graphs can update as data change
Built-in graphs available with a single click
Scatterplots, matrix plots, boxplots, dotplots, histograms, charts, time series plots, etc.
Line plots
Contour and rotating 3D plots
Probability and probability distribution plots
Numerous special-purpose graphs
OLE to edit Minitab graphs in other applications
Graph brushing to explore points of interest
Export: TIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, EMF
Regression Analysis
Linear regression
Nonlinear regression
Orthogonal regression
Binary, ordinal and nominal logistic regression
Analysis of Variance
ANOVA
General linear model (GLM)
Unbalanced nested designs
MANOVA
Design of Experiments
Two-level factorial designs
Split-plot designs
General factorial designs
Plackett-Burman designs
Response surface designs
Mixture designs
D-optimal and distance-based designs
Taguchi designs
User-specified designs
Analyze variability for factorial designs
Response prediction
Botched runs
Response optimization
Plots: residual, main effects, interaction, cube, contour, surface, wireframe
Effects plots: normal, half-normal, Pareto
Reliability/Survival Analysis
Parametric and nonparametric distribution analysis
Goodness-of-fit measures
ML and least squares estimates
Exact failure, right-, left-, and interval-censored data
Accelerated life testing
Regression with life data
Reliability test plans
Threshold parameter distributions
Multivariate Analysis
Principal components analysis
Factor analysis
Discriminant analysis
Cluster analysis
Correspondence analysis
Item analysis and Cronbach’s alpha
Exponential smoothing
Winters’ method
Auto-, partial auto-, and cross correlation functions
ARIMA
Nonparametrics
Sign test
Wilcoxon test
Mann-Whitney test
Kruskal-Wallis test
Tables
Chi-square, Fisher’s exact, and other tests
Chi-square goodness-of-fit test
Tally and cross tabulation
Statistical Exercises
Using MINITAB
CONTENTS
Task 1 - Opening an existing Minitab for Windows Worksheet
Task 2 - Running some simple statistics
Task 3 - Running a correlation
Task 4 - Creating a new variable (column)
Task 5 - Plotting a histogram
Task 6 - Producing a scatterplot
Task 7 - Performing a regression analysis
Task 8 - Plotting a regression line
Task 9 - Modifying data using ‘Code’
Task 10 - Copying part of data
Task 11 - Sorting data
Task 12 - Creating and storing constants
Task 13 - Erasing columns and constants
Task 14 - Ending a Minitab session