MSG Team's other articles

11710 The Ubiquitous Smartphone and how it has Transformed Business and Commerce

How the Ubiquitous Smartphone has Revolutionized B2B and B2C Commerce Who doesn’t own a Smartphone? Right from teenagers to senior citizens and from businesspersons to business leaders, Smartphone ownership is Ubiquitous and all pervasive. Indeed, it is estimated that nearly 80% of the world’s population is now connected to each other through the mobile phones […]

9421 Future of Jobs in a World that is in Perpetual Recession and its Impact on Current Generation

The End of the Good Life for the Current Generation With the global economy mired in deep recession for the last few years, young people who are graduating from universities around the world are caught in a vicious cycle of having debt on one hand and no jobs on the other hand. Given the fact […]

12890 Contract Logistics Cost Model

Warehousing Costing methods vary with the business models. While some warehouses using common shared facilities may be worked up based on transaction costs, dedicated and stand alone facilities would be on a different costing model. In this section, we shall go through the cost elements of a warehouse project briefly. Warehouse Cost elements are primarily […]

9398 Role of Freight Forwarding & Logistics Companies in Supply Chain Management

Global Logistics Scene is dominated by a handful of ten to twelve multinational Companies followed by smaller companies altogether numbering below fifty. Entire global trade is facilitated by these service providers. Major players in the field are lead by DHL, Kuehne + Nagel, Schenker/BAX, UPS, Geodis, Expeditors, Agility, CEVA Logistics, Hellman worldwide logistics, etc. The […]

9962 The Interconnectedness between the American Economy and the World Economy

It is often said that when America sneezes, the entire world catches a cold. This is because of the high degree of integration between the American economy and other economies of the world. Ever since World War 2 ended, America became a dominant economic power. This led to increased integration between the American economy and […]

Search with tags

  • No tags available.

The shape of the data determines the type of tools that can be used to draw conclusions from it. Here is how to graphically plot out the data to find its shape:

Step 1: Plot Data into Categories

To begin with, the data must be divided into equal categories. The categories must have equal intervals to make the data meaningful. Then a frequency table must be prepared from the available data set and the number of times an item occurs within an interval category must be noted down.

Step 2: Draw a Histogram

The next step is to plot the data intervals on a graph paper and create a histogram. A histogram is nothing but a bar chart of a continuous set of data with equal intervals.

Step 3: Join the Midpoints to Find the Shape

The next step is to plot the midpoints of the bars of the histogram. These midpoints must then be joined to develop the curve of the data that is also called the shape of the data.

Amongst the many characteristics of the shape of the data that are important, perhaps the prime category is symmetry. The reasons for the same have been listed below.

Characteristics of Shape

The shape of the data is of such prime importance because statistical techniques have been developed which can make decisions about the probability of data based on its shape. The details of the same are as follows:

Symmetrical Data: Symmetrical data sis the easiest type of data to work with. This is because many statistical techniques have been developed for the same. In fact symmetrical data is so common that it is called the normal curve. It also has other names like the bell curve. There are standard measurements available which can tell the probability of a data point occurring based on the number of standard deviations it is away from the mean. From a six sigma point of view it helps understand how the results of a process are likely to be distributed.

Most things which are measured continuously in nature as well as in operations have the normal distribution. It is for this reason that the applications of symmetrical data are enormous.

Skewed Data: Many times the data is not symmetrical i.e it is skewed towards one side. Data can be either positively or negatively skewed. There are statistical techniques available which help us find out the probability distributions of skewed data too. However such techniques are not very well developed. This is because most of the sample data being collected usually follows the normal distribution. Statistical analysis of skewed data is therefore not often performed.

Article Written by

MSG Team

An insightful writer passionate about sharing expertise, trends, and tips, dedicated to inspiring and informing readers through engaging and thoughtful content.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Characteristics of Data – Central Tendency and Dispersion

MSG Team

Causes of Measurement Variation

MSG Team

Steps Involved in Conducting a Measurement System Analysis

MSG Team