


If you have data and don’t know where to begin your analysis, the Assistant Menu lets you follow an interactive decision tree to determine the right approach and allows you to present your findings using detailed, comprehensive reports. It’s the most compelling reason to upgrade. The Assistant Menu provides the infrequent user a whole new way to approach and use Minitab. You’ll now have a quicker time importing your large Excel files - and all kinds of files for that matter. While not the most important improvement, Minitab 16 is faster than the previous version. These practitioners are also infrequent users of statistics software, spending most of their time gathering data rather than analyzing data. Industrial companies that use Minitab for quality control data analysis prize the software’s easy functionality because most of their Six Sigma practitioners are not statisticians. By Minitab’s account, it’s the leading statistical software used to implement Six Sigma worldwide. Because it’s probably the first statistical software encountered by college students, it was designed from the get go for ease of use. Minitab is used to teach statistics in over 4,000 colleges. With its upgrade, Minitab has added new ease of use features, made significant additions to its Design of Experiments modules, and included new regression procedures and some reporting options that I’m sure a Six Sigma practitioner will find most interesting. Minitab acknowledges that there are many people like me, and its new version helps Six Sigma practitioners better understand which analysis to run, and how to better understand the results.

However, I appreciate the need to use statistical analysis to understand my processes. I am a Six Sigma practitioner, not a statistician, and I find statistics challenging. Minitab 16 Statistical Software is a compelling upgrade for the Six Sigma community. Mercer is in no way associated with Minitab.) (Editor's note: Six Sigma & Process Excellence IQ searched its contacts on LinkedIn for someone who would be able to offer insight into Minitab 16 and selected Michael Mercer to review the software.
