Pareto Diagram

 

What is it?

 

The Pareto diagram is a bar chart that ranks related measures in decreasing order of occurrence.

 

What does it look like?

                                        

When is it used?

 

The pareto diagram is used when it is necessary to know the direction to focus a team or individual’s attention.  The data must be arranged in categories.

 

How is it made?

 

  1. Select logical categories for the identified topic of analysis.
  2. Record the data on a check sheet.
  3. Specify the time period.
  4. Draw and scale the horizontal and vertical axis.
  5. Draw and label the bars for each category.
  6. Review the results of the Pareto.

 

Applications

 

*   The areas in the cafeteria where discipline problems occur:  waiting in line, at the table, or leaving the cafeteria.

*   The types of mistakes on a writing paper

*   Absenteeism by day of the week.

*   The strands where the fourth grade students made mistakes on the SAT-9.