From the archive

Day 14

Monday, 17 August 2026

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Catch a batch drifting out of tolerance

The average can sit dead on target while the batch itself is out of control. STDEV is what actually says so.

Task:

You do quality control on a machine shop floor. Six bolts were pulled from this morning's run and their diameters measured in mm — the target is 8.00mm, but the real question is how consistent the batch is, not whether the average happens to land near it. Work out the average diameter in B8, the standard deviation in B9, then in B11 report whether the process is "In control" or "Out of control" by comparing the standard deviation against the tolerance in B10.

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