McMaster University

Graduate Program in Statistics



STATISTICS SEMINAR



SPEAKER:
Bovas Abraham
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
University of Waterloo
Date :Wednesday November 20, 2002.
Time : 3:30pm
Address Burke Science Building
Room: 138
TITLE:
Quality Improvement Through Statistical Thinking
ABSTRACT:
In this talk I will give a brief outline of the evolution of Quality Systems which include the popular Six Sigma system. Quality Improvement depends on knowledge about products, processes, services etc and Statistics deals with acquiring knowledge by observation. We will look at the different elements of Statistical Thinking, discuss one of its elements, Variation, and consider some strategies for Variation Reduction. This is a non-technical talk and is oriented to students who are more interested in applications of Statistics in Industry and Business.
About the Speaker
Bovas Abraham is a professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo. He is also Director of the Institute for Improvement in Quality and Productivity at Waterloo. His research interests are primarily in time series analysis and statistical methods for quality improvement. In the time series area, the focus is on building models to business economic and financial data, analysis of outliers and missing observations, and issues on sampling interval. In the quality improvement category topics such as statistical process control, designed experiments, online control etc. are pursued. Statistical education and implementation of statistical methods in industry are also major interests.

Prof. Abraham has been involved as a consultant in a wide range of statistical applications in industry in Canada and the United States. Some of these companies include: General Motors, Standard Products, Manchester Plastics, Wescast Industries, Imperial Oil, Nortel, and BF Goodrich. In addition to extensive consulting and teaching experience in the automotive and automotive suppliers industry, he has been involved in consulting for the Ministry of the Environment.

Professor Abraham received his B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Kerala in India. Subsequently he obtained his M.Sc. in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Guelph. He joined the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo in 1977. Professor Abraham is a member of many statistical organizations and in 2000 he was a founding member and first president of the Business and Industrial Statistics Section of the Statistical Society of Canada.

References
Some relevant background references will be posted here shortly.


Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Graduate Program in Statistics

This page is maintained by Angelo Canty,
Last updated on November 6, 2002