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Candy Exercise
Simple Data Analysis
by Bob Mitchell
While brainstorming ideas for the Kansas City AQC
division booth activity the Statistics Division officers
wanted to identify a hands-on activity whereby exhibit
hall visitors could participate in data generation and
analysis. The goal is to demonstrate the power of basic
statistical tools and Statistical Thinking in a fun,
entertaining manner something that could be further
developed as a teacher lesson in the Virtual Academy
module of our re-designed website. The Virtual Academy
is an on-line e-Learning basic statistics-training tool
targeted for K-12 students. It is currently undergoing
dramatic changes to incorporate lots of motion,
animation, sounds, bright colors, etc. tools to tickle the
senses of GenY future Statistics Division members.
Borrowing from the basic statistics module taught in Six
Sigma BB and GB training, we decided to demonstrate
Hypothesis testing, Signal-to-Noise ratios, and basic
quality tools to develop our process knowledge of candy
packaging. For example, known class exercises used in
some Six Sigma training involve studying bag fill weight
and color variation within and between Mars Inc.s M&M
candy varieties (plain, peanut, almond, crispy, peanut
butter), or bag fill and flavor variation of Mars Inc.s
Skittles (original fruit, tropical, wild berry, sour, mint).
One of the Statistics Division officers spouses owns a
candy store. Hearing about our search for a booth
activity, this spouse suggested that we examine the
hypothesis that people least like banana pieces of the five
Willy Wonka Runts flavors (cherry, strawberry, orange,
banana, watermelon). This candy storeowner orders by
bulk at the end of each month. It is her observation that
more people tend to remove the banana pieces before
their purchase; at the end of the month she has a
disproportionate amount of yellow Runts remaining in the
bin.
Two different hypotheses were developed for our Kansas
City AQC booth activity:
Null hypothesis Ho#1:
People like all Runts flavors equally;
No preference: Red = Pink = Orange = Yellow = Green
Bag
Red
Empty
Blue
Orange Yellow
Pink
Green
Total
Preference
Box
60.1
55.7
57.8
60.5
56.0
53.1
59.4
57.9
58.0
57.1
1.4
1.4
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
10
4
2
3
2
6
2
4
5
5
6
7
11
11
14
11
6
15
10
13
9
13
16
15
14
11
11
11
15
17
9
8
2
4
6
1
5
5
5
0
43
45
48
49
45
44
44
48
48
49
orange
yellow
red
orange
red
orange
red
red
yellow
red
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
7
3
7
4
4
11
11
7
4
4
2
10
10
12
5
4
9
6
9
10
Continued on page 15
16
Summary data:
Color
Flavor
Red Cherry
Blue Raspberry
OrangeOrange
Yellow Banana
Pink Strawberry
Green Watermelon
Box1
Freq
Box2
Freq
Box3
Freq
Box4
Freq
Flavor
Total
Flavor
Preference
1.24
1.20
1.10
1.30
1.07
1.80
140
102
223
154
274
124
195
219
157
96
197
126
195
198
216
98
177
107
174
145
239
98
242
107
704
664
835
446
890
464
19
11
14
25
13
6
Data Analysis:
Flavor Preference
Use Chi-Square to test Independence
Chi-Square Test: Flavor Sum, Flavor Preference
Expected counts are printed below observed counts
Color/Total
2.6SL=0.2689
0.2
P=0.1667
0.1
-2.6SL-0.06448
Flavor
Cherry
Sum
704
707.45
Preference
19 (Obs)
15.55 (Exp)
Total
723
Subgroup
Color
Raspberry
664
660.48
11 (Obs)
14.52 (Exp)
675
Orange
835
830.74
14 (Obs)
18.26 (Exp)
849
Banana
446
460.87
25 (Obs)
10.13 (Exp)
471
Strawberry
890
883.58
13 (Obs)
19.42 (Exp)
903
Watermelon
464
459.89
6 (Obs)
10.11 (Exp)
470
Total
4003
88
4091
Yellow
Red
3
Orange
4
Pink
5
Blue
6
Green
Continued on page 16
17
F
1.02
P
0.388
Mean=56.61
55
LCL=51.41
50
Subgroup 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
70
80
90
UCL=6.388
R=1.955
LCL=0
P-value > 0.05; cannot reject the null hypothesis that bag
weights are the same.
Boxplots of Bag Wt. by Box
(means are indicated by solid circles)
62
61
60
64
62
60
58
56
54
52
50
58
57
56
55
54
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
4
UCL=60.10
Mean=56.34
LCL=52.57
Subgroup 0
59
Moving Range
UCL=61.81
60
Moving Range
Individual Value
10
20
30
2
40
50
60
70
80
90
4
1
UCL=4.621
R=1.414
LCL=0
52
53
Red
1
4
UCL=0.3462
0.4
0.3
Color/Total
0.2
P=0.1731
0.1
LCL=3.47E-05
0.0
0
10
20
30
40 50
Packet
60
70
80
90
Continued on page 17
18
Blue
1
Pink
0.5
0.4
UCL=0.4364
0.2
P=0.1443
Color/Total
UCL=0.3050
0.3
Color/Total
0.4
0.3
P=0.2408
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.0
LCL=0
0
10
20
30
40 50
Packet
60
70
80
LCL=0.04519
0.0
90
10
20
30
0.5
70
80
90
Green
Orange
2
60
40 50
Packet
0.3
UCL=0.4326
0.4
P=0.2378
0.2
Color/Total
Color/Total
UCL=0.2476
0.3
0.2
0.1
P=0.1065
0.1
LCL=0.04304
0.0
0.0
0
10
20
30
40 50
Packet
60
70
80
LCL=0
0
90
10
20
30
40 50
Packet
60
70
80
90
Yellow
1
4
1.5
0.3
1.4
UCL=1.387
0.2
0.1
P=0.09751
Total Weight
Color/Total
UCL=0.2332
1.3
Mean=1.235
1.2
1.1
0.0
LCL=0
0
10
20
30
40 50
Packet
60
70
80
90
LCL=1.082
1.0
0
10
20
30
40 50
Bag #
60
70
80
90
19
Conclusion
Our intention for the AQC booth activity was to
demonstrate the applicability of basic statistics and quality
tools in everyday activities. Our hope is that this brief,
fun look at passive data analysis will motivate the use of
graphical displays of data towards deeper process
understanding and discovery. Our plan is to continue
development of the Virtual Academy to present statistics
in a fun and stimulating learning environment to K-12
education.
20