Quantitative Methods For

Management
Course Code: 111401
Academic Session: 2017-18
Instructor: Dr. Sandhya Makkar
 Quantitative Methods For Managers:
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
• Make students familiar with basic statistical
tools and techniques
• Techniques in resolving complex problems
that serve as a valuable guide to decision
makers
 Quantitative Methods For Managers:
LEARNING GOALS
• This course will help you develop your skills
and instincts in applying quantitative
methods to formulate, analyze, and solve
management decision-making problems.
• Evaluate and ability to interpret the results of
quantitative analysis.
What you should learn from this course
• How to collect, store and assess data to aid
decision making
• How to present data visually.
• How calculate and use key statistics to aid
decision making using Excel/SPSS
• How use data to understand the past and
forecast the future
Aim of the Orientation Classes

What will be the aim???

 Aim of the Orientation Classes

• The aim is to brush up your previous

knowledge

• And to bridge the gap among students

Module Session
COURSE OVERVIEW Topic & Reading/s
No. No./s
I 1 -2 Introduction to Statistics: Statistics in business, Importance and Functions of
Statistics, Types of Data, Data Measurement.

Case: DiGiorno Pizza: Introducing a Frozen Pizza to Compete with Carry – Out, Ken
Black (2007), Chapter - 1.

Descriptive Statistics: Tabular and Graphical Presentation: Summarizing Qualitative

Data, Summarizing Quantitative Data, Scatter Diagrams.

Case: Pelican Stores, Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2007), Chapter 2

Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter1 & 2
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter1 & 2

II 3–4 Descriptive Statistics: Numerical Measures: Measures of Central Tendency:

Ungrouped Data, Measures of Variability: Ungrouped Data, Measures of Central
Tendency and Variability: Grouped Data, Measures of Shape-Skewness, Kurtosis.
Descriptive Statistics on Computer

Cases: Pelican Stores, and National Health Care Association, Anderson, Sweeny,
Williams (2012), Chapter 3
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 3
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 3 & 4
III 5-6 Probability: Concepts of Probability, Experiments and Sample Space, Assigning
probabilities to Experimental Outcomes, Events and their Probabilities, Some basic
Relationships of Probability, Conditional Probability, Baye’s Theorem.

Cases: a. Gender Equity in the Workplace, Ken Black (2007), Chapter 4

b. Cameras and Photo Films Industry: Rapid Growth after Liberalization , Naval
Bajpai (2012), Chapter 5
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 4
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 5

IV 7-8 Distributions of Random Variables:

Discrete Probability Distributions: Random Variables, Discrete Random Variables,

Binomial Probability Distribution, Poisson probability Distribution.
Continuous Probability Distributions: Continuous Random Variables, Uniform
Distribution, Normal Probability Distribution, Exponential Probability Distribution

Using Computer to Solve the above Probability Distributions

Case: Titan Industries Ltd: Providing Real-Value to Customers, Naval Bajpai (2012),
Chapter 6
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 5 & 6
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 6
 V 9 Sampling Distributions: Sampling Distribution of , Central Limit Theorem, Sampling
Distribution of , Properties of Point Estimators
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 7
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 8

VI 10-11 Interval Estimation: Population mean: known and unknown – Margin of Error
and the Interval Estimate
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 8

VII 12-13 Statistical Inference: Hypothesis testing for Single Populations: Developing Null &
Alternate Hypotheses, Type I and Type II Errors, Population mean: known and
Population mean: unknown – One-Tailed and Two Tailed Test.

Using Computer for Estimation
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 9
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 9

VIII 14-15 Statistical Inference: Hypothesis Testing for Two Populations: Hypotheses Testing for
the Difference Between Two Population Means: known and
also  1 and 
unknown, Inference About the Difference Between
2 two Related
 1 andMeans
Populations  2 (Matched Samples)
Using Computer for Hypothesis Testing
Case : Par, Inc.: Manufacturer of Golf Equipment, Anderson, Sweeny, Williams
(2012), Chapter 10
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 10
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 11
IX 16 Variance Analysis: Inference about a Population Variance, Inference about two
Population Variance, One Way ANOVA
Using Computer for ANOVA
Case: Wentworth Medical Center, Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012),
Chapter 13
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 13
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 12

X 17-18 Linear Regression and Correlation Analysis: The Coefficient of Correlation, The
Coefficient of Determination, Testing the significance of Correlation Coefficient,
Simple Linear Regression, Determining the Equation of a Regression Line, The
Standard Error of Estimate, Assumptions Underlying Linear Regression
Case: Measuring Stock Market Risk. Chapter 14
Readings:
1. Anderson, Sweeny, Williams (2012), Chapter 14
2. Naval Bajpai (2012), Chapter 14

XI 19-20 Presentations
 Evaluation
1 INTERNAL ASSESMENT 60 MARKS
a. Mid Term Exam 15 Marks
b. Assignments/Caselets 10 Marks
c. Quiz 5 marks
d. Project Presentation 10 Marks
2 END TERM EXAM 40 MARKS
 Readings
Essential Readings
Text Book
Business statistics for Contemporary Decision Making(2013)”,
Ken Black, Wiley India Publication.
Suggested Readings
• “Statistics for Business and Economics (2012)”, Anderson,
Sweeny and Williams, Cengage Learning Publication.
• “Business Statistics (2012)”, Naval Bajpai, Pearson
Publication.
• “Basic Statistics for Business and Economics (2006)” Lind,
Marchal, Wathen, McGraw –Hill International Edition.
• “Business Statistics - In Practise (2010)”, Bowerman,
Connell, Murphree
What is Statistics??
 Statistics
• Collection : Types of Sources of Data
• Presentation: Graphs
• Analysis: Estimation
• Interpretation: Hypothesis Testing
of Data

The science that deals with the collection,

presentation , analysis, interpretation, of
numerical data
• Why you should learn Statistics??
• You want to buy a battery for your car. How will you decide which brand is good or
bad.

• You are on a diet for weight loss, how will you decide which food to buy

• Your company has created a new drug that may cure arthritis. How would you
conduct a test to confirm the drug's effectiveness?

• The latest sales data have just come in, and your boss wants you to prepare a report
for management on places where the company could improve its business. What
should you look for? What should you not look for?

• As a manager you would have to analyse the salary of your executives vs the salary of
the executives of your competitor.(satisfaction level/ avg working hours)
• Able to effectively conduct research

• Statistics is to be able to read journals

• Develop critical and analytic thinking skills

• To act like an informed consumer

• Tool to make an educated decision

 Types of Statistical Analysis
Two phases of statistics:
 Descriptive Statistics:
Describes the characteristics of a data using
information collected on it.
Avg life of batteries, average salaries etc.
 Inferential
Draws conclusions on unknown process parameters
based on information contained in a sample.
Uses probability
 Population Versus Sample

• Population — the whole

– a collection of all persons, objects, or items under
study
• Sample — gathering data on a subset of the
population
– Use information about the sample to infer about
the population
Population
Population Data

Identifier Color MPG

RD1 Red 12
RD2 Red 10
RD3 Red 13
RD4 Red 10
RD5 Red 13
BL1 Blue 27
BL2 Blue 24
GR1 Green 35
GR2 Green 35
GY1 Gray 15
GY2 Gray 18
GY3 Gray 17
Sample and Sample Data

Identifier Color MPG

RD2 Red 10

RD5 Red 13

GR1 Green 35

GY2 Gray 18
 Parameter vs. Statistic

• Parameter — descriptive measure of the population.

 denotes population parameter

 2 denotes population variance
 denotes population standard deviation
• Statistic — descriptive measure of a sample

x denotes sample mean

s 2 denotes sample variance
s denotes sample standard deviation
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 23
 Process of Inferential Statistics

4. Use x
to estimate 
1. Population 3. Sample
 x
(parameter) (statistic )

2. Select a
random sample

Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 24

 What is data?
• Is it
– information converted into binary digital form
– facts collected together for reference or analysis
– the quantities, characters, or symbols on which
operations are performed
– may be stored and transmitted in the form of
electrical signals
– basis of reasoning or calculation
• Data is a set of values of qualitative or
quantitative variables
• Can be unorganized or organized
 Data Types

D a ta

Categorical Num erical

(Q ualitative) (Q uantitative)

Discrete Continuous
 Data Types
• Qualitative (or categorical) data consist of values
that can be separated into different categories
that are distinguished by some non numeric
characteristic. Like eye colour, hair colour,
favourite actor, defective or non defective, gender
etc
• Quantitative data consist of values representing
counts or measurements. Number of titles in
library, average salary of employees, no.of
working hours, waiting time in a queue etc.
 Quantitative Data (Discrete)
Discrete data. Data values can only be
whole no. Counted data or attribute data.
Examples include:
 How many of the products are defective?
 How often are the machines repaired?
 How many people are absent each day?
Quantitative Data (Continuous) contd..

Continuous data. Data values can be any

real number. Measured data.
Examples include:
 How long is each item?
 How long did it take to complete the task?
 What is the weight of the product?
 Length, volume, time
 Determine whether the data described are qualitative
or quantitative(Discrete/Continuous)

• The number of textbooks owned by a student

• The incomes of college graduates
• The gender of college graduates
• The position of faculty as Lecturer, Assistant
professor etc.
• How many days did it rain last month?
• What kind of performance was achieved?
• Number of defectives
• Temperature of each day of last month
 Levels of Data Measurement

• Nominal — In nominal measurement the values just

"name" the attribute uniquely.
– No ordering of the cases is implied.
– For example, a persons gender is nominal..
– Another example is religion – Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, etc.
– Color of cars manufactured
 Levels of Data Measurement

• Ordinal - A variable is ordinal measurable if ranking is possible

for values of the variable.
– For example, a gold medal reflects superior performance to
a silver or bronze medal in the Olympics.

– Preference scales are typically ordinal – how much do you

like this cereal? Like it a lot, somewhat like it, neutral,
somewhat dislike it, dislike it a lot.

– Positions of faculty in a Bschool

Associate, Assistant professor, Associate Professor,
Professor
 Levels of Data Measurement

• Interval - In interval measurement the data under study

can be categorized in certain range/interval
– For example, when measuring temperature (in Fahrenheit),
– Price of a product variants from Rs.100-200
– Room rent in Dwarka Rs. 8000-30000
 COLLECTION

How do we collect data??

 Collection of data

Primary Data Secondary Data

observation
Obtained from published
sources

Experimentation

Questioning
 Primary Data - Examples
• Surveys
• Focus groups
• Questionnaires
• Personal/group interviews
• Experiments and observational study
 Secondary Data
• Secondary data – data someone else has
collected
• Obtained from public sources
• You can see library shelves for the same
(published in books, journals etc.)
• Company’s published sales data
Presentation
Of
Data
 Describing and summarizing the data

Data can be represented by graphs like

• Bar Graphs
• Histograms
• Pie Charts etc.
These visual displays allow you to quickly
recognize patterns in the distribution of data.
Company : 100 , 121 , 164 , 78 ,Idea Company Sales
Idea 1 00
-10 121
Vodafone 121
Honda
Airtel 164
Vodafone
Aircel 78
Aircel Airtel
MTNL -10

Company Company Sales ( In Rs

Idea 1 00 Crores)
Vodafone 121 Idea 1 00
Airtel 164 Vodafone 121
Aircel 78 Airtel 164
Honda -10 Aircel 78
MTNL 10
Company Sales ( In Rs
Crores) ( 2011)
Which company has highest sales in 2011.
Idea 1 00
Vodafone 121 What can be the reason for other companies
Airtel 164 to be low
Aircel 78
MTNL 10

Sales(in Rs. Crores)

180

160

140

120

100 Sales(in Rs. Crores)

80

60

40

20

0
Idea Vodafone Airtel Aircel MTNL
HISTOGRAM

Supervisor of production firm noted the workers on leave for 38

working days

9,16,13,7,8,4,18,10,17,18,9,12,5,9,9,
16,1,8,17,1,10,5,9,11,15,6,14,9,1,12,
5,16,4,16,8,15,14,17

Present it in a best way to show to the Manager

HISTOGRAM

Manager noted the workers on leave for 38 working days

9,16,13,7,8,4,18,10,17,18,9,12,5,9,9,
16,1,8,17,1,10,5,9,11,15,6,14,9,1,12,
5,16,4,16,8,15,14,17

Step 1: Arrange data

1,1,1,4,4,5,5,5,6,7,8,8,8,9,9,9,9,9,9,10,10,11,12,12,
13,14,14,15,15,16,16,16,16,17,17,17,18,18

Step 2: The smallest value (the "minimum") is 1 cm

The largest value (the "maximum") is 18 cm
The range is 18−1 = 17 cm

Let us say we want about 5 groups.

Divide the range by 5:
17/5 = 3.4
Then round that up to 4
Frequency distribution Table

No.of Frequency of
workers leave
0-4 3
4-8 7
8-12 12
12-16 7
16-20 9
Make a frequency distribution for the following sales data of cricket balls(in
units) of a sports shop during 20 working days, using 5 classes:

5 17
10 17
7 22
19 21
25 7
12 7
15 24
7 5
6
6
5
8
 Frequency of
Class
Sales
5-9 10
10-14 2
15-19 4
20-24 3
25-29 1
Which country has maximum
consumption of oil and gas?

How much energy does most

countries use?

What can be the reason for same?

Prepare a bar graph and histogram for the data

 Bar Graph and Histogram
• Bar Graph: Plot countries on X axis and oil
consumption on Y axis (in equal intervals)

Histogram: Make a frequency Distribution Table(Oil

consumption in range of 100)
• Histogram: a. Oil consumption in range of 100 on X
axis
– B. No. of companies falling in that range on Y axis

What information can you cull out of both graphs?

 Bar Graph
Energy Consumption(in millions of tonnes)
1600

1400

1200

1000

800 Energy Consumption(in millions of tonnes)

600

400

200

0
a r il a n o ia rea nce ay ada UK y a n ia A
ani ado raz abi Ira exic Ind Itl an hin apa uss US
hu c B A r Ko Fra Ca
n r m C J R
Lit Eu i M th Ge
ud u
Sa So
 Histogram from Frequency Dist
Energy No. of Use Data Analysis Tool Pack in Add Ins
Consumption countries
100 3
200 9
300 2 Histogram
400 1 10
9
500 1 8

600 0 7
6
700 0
No. of countries

5
Frequency
800 0 4
3
900 0 2
1000 0 1

1100 0 0

10
0
20
0
30
0
40
0
50
0
60
0
70
0
80
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
90 100 110 120 130 140 150 Mo
re

1200 0 Energy Consumption

1300 0
1400 0
1500 1
 Histogram
• A histogram shows us where the data tend to
cluster. What are the most common values?
The least common?
• Then we can analyze the reasons for the same
 Outliers
• In many data sets, there
are occasional values
that fall far from the rest
of the data. For example,
if we graph the age
distribution of students
in a college course, we
might see a data point at
75 years. Data points like
this one that fall far from
the rest of the data are
known as outliers.
 how to handle the outlier
• leave the outlier alone
• remove it
• change it to a corrected value
 Arithmetic Mean
Mean is the central value of the data and
represents the whole data.
Mean = Sum of all the observations
Number of Observation

Excel function: =AVERAGE(Array)

What is the Mean

Histogram
10

0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 More

Frequency
What is the Mean

Histogram
10

0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 More

Frequency

235.25 The distribution is strongly skewed to the right:

the high value of US consumption pulls the mean to a
value higher than the consumption of most other
countries.
 Median
• The median is the middle value of a data set
whose values are arranged in numerical order.
Half the values are higher than the median,
and half are lower.
 Median – Discrete Series
• It appears in the middle of an ordered
sequence. Divides data in two equal parts
Steps
1. Arrange data in ascending or descending
order
2. If no. of observations(N) are odd, then
th
 N 1 
Median    term
 2 
3. If no. of observations (N) are even, then
th th
N N 
  term    1 term
Median   
2 2 
2
Using Excel function: =MEDIAN(Array) Find the
median of the above data
 Where is the outlier??
• Mean > median—Outlier is present at the
upper level (take 5% of mean)
• Mean<median– Outlier if present at the lower
level (take 5% of mean)
• Mean is affected in the presence of outlier but
median does not
• By contrast, the median is not biased by
outliers and is often a better value to represent
skewed data.
 Where is the Outlier?
• Difference of Mean and Median > 5% percent
of mean => there is presence of outlier
BEST MEASURE is :MEDIAN(Statistician)

Difference of mean and median < 5% of mean =>

No outlier => Mean or median would be the
best measure (they are equivalent)
 Mode
• A third statistic to represent the "center" of a
data set is its mode: the data set's most
frequently occurring value.
 Mode
• Number which occurs most frequently
• Excel function: =MODE(Array)

Relation when asymmetric distribution

Mode = 3 Median – 2 Mean
• A storeowner kept a tally of the sizes of suits purchased in his
store. Which measure of central tendency should the storeowner
use to describe the average size suit sold?

• In online aptitude test for HDFC results are posted. All candidates
taking the test scored over 75 out of 100. Unfortunately, 4
candidates were absent for the test and the computer listed their
scores as 0 until the test is taken. Assuming that no score repeated
more times than the 0's, what measure of central tendency would
most likely give the the best representative of this data?

• Start Exercise uploaded in the netbook(sales)

A manufacturer of a flashlight batteries took a sample of 13 batteries from a
day's production and used them continuously unless they were drained . The
number of hours they were used until failure were?

342 , 426 , 317 , 545 , 264 , 451 , 1,049 , 631, 512 , 266 , 492, 562 , 298

a) Compute the mean , median and mode . Looking at the distribution of times
to failure which measure of location do you think are the best and which is
the worst and why?

b) In what ways do you think this information is useful to the manufacturer?

• ICICI Bank branch located in west delhi has developed an
improved process for serving customers from 12.00 PM to
1.00 PM peak lunch period. The waiting time in minutes
( defined as the time customer enters the line to when he or
she is served) of all customers is recorded over a period of
one week . A random sample of 15 customers is selected and
results are as follows
• 4.21 , 5.55 , 3.02 , 5.13 , 4.77 , 2.34 , 3.54 , 3.20 , 4.50 , 6.10 ,
0.38 , 5.12 , 6.46 , 6.19 , 3.79

• Compute the appropriate average waiting time of the

customer ,
• Suppose that the branch manager would like to gurantee a
certain level of service during the peak lunch period . Failure
to obtain service within a specified time would result in a
small monetary payment or gift to the customer . What
waiting time do you think should be used as a cutoff above
which this gift would be provided ? Explain your answer.
• While analyzing the data for 10 FMCG
companies it was observed that mean sales
for year 2011 was 200 cr and median sales
were 220 cr.

• Is thee an outlier in data? Where?

1) Upper side
2) Lower side
3) Middle
 CASE STUDY
• The National Health Care Association is
concerned about the shortage of nurses
• The association sponsored a study of job
satisfaction in hospital nurses
• Sample of 30 nurses indicated their degree of
satisfaction with their work, their pay, and
their opportunities for promotion on a scale
from 0 to 100
 Contd..
• The types of hospitals were Private, Veterans
Administration (VA), and University
Questions
1. What aspect of the job is most satisfying for
the nurses?
2. What appears to be least satisfying?
3. In what area, do you feel improvements
should be made?
 Contd..
4. What can be learned about the types of
hospital?
5. Does any particular type of hospital seem to
have better levels of job satisfaction than the
other types?
Analysis of Case study
 Averages
Q1 & Q2-What aspect is most and least satisfying
among nurses?
Work Pay Promotion
Mean 78.87 49.47 59.23
Median 78.5 49 62

Nurses are more satisfied

with work and least with
pay

Q3. In what area, do you feel improvements

should be made? PAY
Arithmetic Mean: Continuous Data
• The following data shows distance covered by
100 persons to perform their routine jobs.
Distance(Km) 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40
No.of persons 10 20 40 30
 Distance Number of
Mid Points
Covered in Persons u=(x−15)/10 fu
x
(Km) f

0−10 10 5 −1 −10
10−20 20 15 0 0
20−30 40 25 +1 40
30−40 30 35 +2 60
Total ∑f=100 ∑fu=90
Now we will find the Arithmetic Mean as
MEAN=A+(∑fu/∑f)×h
Where
A=15, ∑fu=90, ∑f=100 and h=10
Mean=15+(90/100)×10=24 Km
 Variations
Q1 & Q2-What aspect is most and least satisfying
among nurses?
Work Pay Promotion
Standard Deviation 8.79 13.48 17.608
Coefficient of Var 11.15 27.26 29.72

Nurses are more satisfied

with work and least with
promotion

Q3. In what area, do you feel improvements

should be made? PROMOTION
 Average for different types of Hospitals
Work Pay Promotion
Private 79.21 47.24 61.46
University 79.21 55.14 54.42
Veterans 78.11 49.33 56.1

In totality nurses are least satisfied to work at VA as it’s not a

attractive job in comparison to university or a private hospital job.

The private hospitals nurses are least satisfied with pay in

comparison to nurses working with university .

However private hospitals scores high for promotions in

comparison to university which are governed by some norms.
 Variations for different types of hospitals

Work Pay Promotion

Private(stdev) 8.927 13.32 11.18
University 9.406 14.24 27.62
Veterans 9.79 15.16 16.81

In totality nurses are least satisfied to work at VA as it’s not an

attractive job in comparison to university or a private hospital job.

Also nurses are least satisfied with pay in VA in comparison to

nurses working with university. [difference of opinion]

However private hospitals scores high for promotions in

comparison to university which are governed by some norms.
 Conclusion
• In totality promotions is the critical area to be worked upon as
its area of highest dissatisfaction (variation high-slide 12)
• Since highest number of employment is in private sector ,
private sector should work out policies for pay and promotion
in order to enhance the productivity of nurses.
• As number of nurses in universities are low, it shows how
difficult it is to get into these hospitals , therefore policies
should be liberal and promotion/pay policies should be
transparent for all and not biased.
• For VA the profile is not very popular and limited scope of job
so number of nurses employed are less,VA should improve in
pay structures.
HUL Distribution center maintain mileage records on all of its rolling equipment . Here
are weekly milage records for its truck
810 450 756 789 210 657 589 488 876 689
1450 560 469 890 987 559 788 943 447 775

• Comment on the average mileage of these 20 trucks.

• If the HUL distribution center is considering wants to check the consistency

at the level of trucks with lower mileage i.e below 50% of the data

• Compare the average of upper 50% of the data with lower 50% of the
data .
•. How this information is useful for the HUL distribution center .( min 50
words)
Comment on whether to use mean , median or mode to
calculate average of each variable

• The salary of each of 100 people working at roughly

equivalent jobs in the government.

• The earnings of a firm whose stocks prices are very

consistent and do not fluctuate much in response to
external factors.

• Temperature readings for the first week of June.

• Commissions of 10 sales person of real estate , each selling

the properties in their respective sales territories
 Average Median
Males 47.409 50
Females 42.8 36

Average Sales of Average Sales of Region Average Sales of region

region 1 2 3
58.6 38 30
Average by M = 59 Average by M =43.5 Average by M= 34.5
Average by F = 57 Average by F = 38 Average by F = 28

No of Males No of females
Comment on this descriptive data
Region 1 = 9 Region 1 = 12 from sales performance data of 60
salesperson of Flipcart.com
Region 2 = 8 Region 2 = 9

Region 3 = 6 Region 3 = 12 All average sales data in (000)

• ICICI Bank branch located in west delhi has developed an
improved process for serving customers from 12.00 PM to
1.00 PM peak lunch period. The waiting time in minutes
( defined as the time customer enters the line to when he or
she is served) of all customers is recorded over a period of
one week . A random sample of 15 customers is selected and
results are as follows
• 4.21 , 5.55 , 3.02 , 5.13 , 4.77 , 2.34 , 3.54 , 3.20 , 4.50 , 6.10 ,
0.38 , 5.12 , 6.46 , 6.19 , 3.79

• Compute the appropriate average waiting time of the

customer , and check the consistency of middle 50% of the
data.
• Is the data for all 15 customers is consistent ?
• As the customer walks into the office during lunch hour , she
asks branch manager how long she can expect to wait. The
branch manager replies “ Almost certainly less than 5 minutes
. On the basis of above result is this statement accurate.

• Suppose that the branch manager would like to gurantee a

certain level of service during the peak lunch period . Failure
to obtain service within a specified time would result in a
small monetary payment or gift to the customer . What
waiting time do you think should be used as a cutoff above
which this gift would be provided ? Explain your answer.
• The median price of US home in 2001 rose to $ 1,47,500 , an
increase of over 6% from 2000 . This rise in median home
prices exceeded the increase in the median family income
thus making the dream of owing a home out of reach for
many families. ( www.ustoday.com , May 5, 2002)

• Why do you think the article reports the median home price
and not the mean home price.

• In what circumstance the article could have reported mean.

• Comment upon median family income?
• The operation manager of apollo tyres wants to compare the
actual inner diameter of two grades of tyre , each of which is
expected to be 575 millimeters . A sample of 5 tyres of each
grade was selected and result representing the inner diameter
of the tyres ordered from smallest to largest were as follows

• Grade A : 568 , 570 , 578 , 584 , 575

• Grade B : 573 , 574 ,575 , 577 , 578
Compute suitable average diameter for each grade.
Which Grade tyre is providing better quality ? What would
have been effect on your answers if the last value of the grade
B was 588 instead of 578? explain