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Creating Pareto Charts Using Microsoft Excel

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31 views3 pages

Creating Pareto Charts Using Microsoft Excel

Uploaded by

muyiwa07
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Creating Pareto Charts Using Microsoft Excel

Creating a Pareto chart is not difficult. Follow these simple steps.

1. Create an Excel spreadsheet with three columns: category, frequency, and cumulative
percentage.
2. Enter the data in the chart.
Enter a short name for each defect on a separate row in the “Category” column.
Enter the number of defects for each category in the “Frequency” column.
Enter the cumulative percentage for each category in the “Cumulative Percentage” column.
Set the spreadsheet up so it automatically calculates these data.
 First, in the cell below the last “Frequency” entry, insert the “Sum” formula from the
tool bar and include the frequency values from all rows. Select the cell, then click on
the “Sum” icon (Σ) in the tool bar at the top of the spreadsheet. When you click on the
icon, a dotted-line box will probably appear around all frequency values immediately
above. Press the “Enter” key to confirm the selected cells as input for the sum.
 In the first cell in the “Cumulative Percentage” column, enter a formula for the
frequency value of that row divided by the sum. Do this as follows: press the “=” key;
select the frequency value cell in the row; press the “/” key on the numeric keypad;
select the sum cell; press the “enter” key. The formula has now been entered in the cell.
 In all subsequent cells, enter a formula that includes adding the value of the previous
“Cumulative Percentage” cell. Do this as follows: press the “=” key; select the
frequency value cell in the row; press the “/” key on the numeric keypad; select the
sum cell; press the “+” key on the numeric keypad; select the cumulative percentage
cell from the previous row; press the “Enter” key.

The spreadsheet should look like this.

The image above is an Excel spreadsheet. Double-click on it to open it as a spreadsheet. You


may then click on any cell in the “Cumulative Percentage” column and see how the formulae
have been entered. To return to this page, click outside the spreadsheet.

Note that Excel does not create a Pareto chart from a collection of raw data. You must explicitly
calculate and enter the cumulative percentage data.
3. To create the Pareto chart, select all cells in the spreadsheet except the “sum” cell. To do this,
place the cursor over the upper left corner cell, hold down the left button on the mouse and
drag down all data rows and across all data columns to the lower right corner cell. Release
the button. All cells should be black.
4. Click on the “Chart Wizard” button on the toolbar. It looks like a bar graph. In the pop-up
window, click on the “Custom Types” tab. In the “Chart Type” area, scroll down to the “Line
– Column on 2 Axes” entry and select it. Click on the “Finish” button. A Pareto chart will
appear on the spreadsheet. It should look like this.

5. The chart format is not consistent with a traditional Pareto chart. You must make two
adjustments.
a. Move the cursor over the percentage data on the right-hand scale and right-click. Then,
click on “Format Axis…” Click on the “Scale” tab at the top of the pop-up box. Change
the data in the “Maximum” box to a value of 1. Click “OK.”
b. Move the cursor over the frequency data on the left-hand scale and right click. Then,
click on “Format Axis…” Click on the “Scale” tab at the top of the pop-up box. Change
the data in the “maximum” box to the value of the sum of all frequency values. Click
“OK.” After you do this, you may also have to go back into the “Format Axis…” box and
change the value in the “Minimum” box to 0.

The final Pareto Chart should look like this.


You may move the chart to any location in the spreadsheet by placing the cursor anywhere on
the chart, clicking and holding the left mouse button, and dragging the chart.

Note that the examples above are all Excel spreadsheets. You may copy them to other documents
and use them as a basis for a new chart with your own data.

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