In Example 3, initial experience at an electronics manufacturing facility involved 14 % yields of good IC chips.

(a) Explain how this number (14 %) was probably obtained.

(b) Describe how the three parts of Definition 2 are involved in your answer for part (a).

Definition 2

Statistics is the study of how best to: 1. collect data, 2. summarize or describe data, and 3. draw conclusions or inferences based on data, all in a framework that recognizes the reality and omnipresence of variation
If quality of conformance has to do with small variation and one wishes to assure it, it will be necessary to measure, monitor, find sources of, and seek ways to reduce variation. All of these require data (information on what is happening in a system producing a product) and therefore the tool of statistics. The intellectual framework of the subject of statistics, emphasizing as it does the concept of variation, makes it natural for application in the world of quality assurance. We will see that both simple and also somewhat more advanced methods of statistics have their uses in the quest to produce quality goods and services