Page 48 - Statistics for Dummies

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Part I: Vital Statistics about Statistics
A mother comes in with her baby and has a special request: “Could you
please not pose my baby too deliberately? I just like his pictures to look natu-
ral.” If Carol says, “Can’t do that, sorry. My raises are based on my ability to
pose a child well,” you can bet that the mother is going to fill out that survey
on quality service after this session — and not just to get $2.00 off her next
sitting (if she ever comes back). Instead, Carol should show her boss the
information in Chapter 16 about collecting data on customer satisfaction.
Poking through pizza data
Terry is a store manager at a local pizzeria that sells pizza by the slice. He is
in charge of determining how many workers to have on staff at a given time,
how many pizzas to make ahead of time to accommodate the demand, and
how much cheese to order and grate, all with minimal waste of wages and
ingredients. Friday night at midnight, the place is dead. Terry has five work-
ers left and has five large pans of pizza he could throw in the oven, making
about 40 slices of pizza each. Should he send two of his workers home?
Should he put more pizza in the oven or hold off?
The store owner has been tracking the demand for weeks now, so Terry
knows that every Friday night things slow down between 10 and 12 p.m., but
then the bar crowd starts pouring in around midnight and doesn’t let up until
the doors close at 2:30 a.m. So Terry keeps the workers on, puts in the pizzas
in 30-minute intervals from midnight on, and is rewarded with a profitable
night, with satisfied customers and with a happy boss. For more information
on how to make good estimates using statistics, see Chapter 13.
Statistics in the office
D.J. is an administrative assistant for a computer company. How can statis-
tics creep into her office workplace? Easy. Every office is filled with people
who want to know answers to questions, and they want someone to “Crunch
the numbers,” to “Tell me what this means,” to “Find out if anyone has any
hard data on this,” or to simply say, “Does this number make any sense?”
They need to know everything from customer satisfaction figures to changes
in inventory during the year; from the percentage of time employees spend
on e-mail to the cost of supplies for the last three years. Every workplace is
filled with statistics, and D.J.’s marketability and value as an employee could
go up if she’s the one the head honchos turn to for help. Every office needs a
resident statistician — why not let it be you?

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