Thanks to everyone who replied - Rich Goldstein, Maarten Buis, Hind
Sbihi, Joe Coveney, and Carlo Lazzaro.
I think I have what I need now to track down an approach to the analysis
of this sort of problem.
Thanks again,
Kieran
______________________________________________
Kieran McCaul MPH PhD
WA Centre for Health & Ageing (M573)
University of Western Australia
Level 6, Ainslie House
48 Murray St
Perth 6000
email: [email protected]
http://myprofile.cos.com/mccaul
_______________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard
Goldstein
Sent: Friday, 16 November 2007 10:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: st: What is this problem called?
At least as stated, this is the inverse of the traditional statistical
quality control problem; traditionally, a process is in control and one
uses QC to find, as fast as possible, when the process goes out of
control. You appear to start out of control and want to know when the
process become in control.
I don't know if this question has been examined in the QC literature,
but my guess it that it has and I would do a lit search there.
Hope this helps,
Rich
Kieran McCaul wrote:
> Gidday,
>
> A colleague has asked me the following question:
>
> Suppose a surgeon performs a number of surgical procedures using a new
> technique. He/she records the operating time for each operation. How
> would the data be analysed so as to determine the number of procedures
> performed before the operating time stabilises?
>
> I haven't come across a problem quite like this before, but it seems
to
> me that it's a question that might arise, for example, when evaluating
> the implementation of new industrial or manufacturing processes.
>
> I have an idea about how I would approach this analysis, but first I'd
> like to have a look at what others may have done.
>
> Searching the literature is difficult though if you don't know what
the
> problem is called.
>
> Does anyone recognise this problem or something analogous to it and
can
> you give me a name I can search on or point me to a few relevant
papers.
> I can back-track though the literature from there.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Kieran
>
> ______________________________________________
> Kieran McCaul MPH PhD
> WA Centre for Health & Ageing (M573)
> University of Western Australia
> Level 6, Ainslie House
> 48 Murray St
> Perth 6000
> email: [email protected]
> http://myprofile.cos.com/mccaul
> _______________________________________________
>
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