Month: September 2010

R Function Reference

Updated below

The R Function Reference is a mind map that I created as a guide for novice and intermediate users of the R statistics language. When you first open it, I suggest that you collapse all the nodes by clicking on the “Expand/Collapse all nodes” button in the bottom left of the screen to make the map easier to navigate. You can also adjust the zoom level with the slider next to that button.

R Function Reference screenshot

The top-level nodes of the R Function Reference

The mind map is arranged in eight sections, or main branches, arranged by task. What do you want to do? Each branch covers a general set tasks, such as learning to use R, running R, working with data, statistical analysis or plotting data. The end of each string of nodes is generally a function and example. The Reference provides code fragments, rather than details of the function or complete reproducible code blocks. Once you’ve followed the Reference and have an idea of how to accomplish something, you can look up the details in R’s help system (e.g. “?read.csv” to learn more about using the read.csv() function), or search Google or the online R-Help mailing list archives for answers using the function name.

There are a lot of useful nodes and examples, especially in the “Graphs” section, but the mind map is not complete; some trails end before you get to a useful function reference. I am sorry for that, but it’s a work in progress, and will be slowly updated over time.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Update 1

In comments, several users reported problems opening the mind map. With a little investigation, it appears that the size of the mind map is the problem. To try to fix the problems , I have split the mind map out into several small mind maps, all linked together.

The new main mind map is the R Function Reference, Main. The larger branches on this main map no longer expand to their own content, but contain a link to a “child” mind map. The link looks like a sheet of paper with an arrow pointing to the right, click on it and little cartoon speech bubble will pop up with a link that you have to click on to go to the child mind map. Likewise, the central nodes on the child mind maps contain a link back to the main mind map.

Due to load times and the required extra clicks, this may slightly reduce usability for users who didn’t have a problem with the all-in-one version, but will hopefully make the mind map accessible to a broader audience.

I have to offer praise to the developers of Mind42. Though I couldn’t directly split branches off into their own mind maps or duplicate the mind map, it was very easy to export the mind map as a native Mind42 file and then import it multiple times, editing the copies without any loss of data or links. The ability to link directly between mind maps within Mind42 was also a key enabling feature. Considering that this is a free web app, its capabilities are most impressive. They were also quick to respond when I posted a call for help on the Mind42 forum.

Please let me know how the new, “improved” version works.

The old mind map, containing everything, is still available, but I will not update it.

Process Stability

(Updated below)

While performing a web search, I remembered how difficult the concept of “process stability” can be. How do you know when a process is stable?

D. C. Montgomery, one of the recognized authorities on the subject of statistical process control, seems to give conflicting advice on this. For instance, he’s careful to point out the assumptions underlying all of the measures that one would use on a process, and unstable processes invalidate most or all of these assumptions. How do you know if a process is stable if none of your analyses are applicable?

Process stability needs an operational definition. Luckily, there are at least two:

1) No signals on the appropriate process behavior chart (a.k.a. control chart);

2) Cpk / Ppk == 1 and Cp / Pp == 1

Signals on a process behavior chart do not necessarily mean that a process is out of control (i.e. false signals are possible, and expected at certain mathematically determinable rates), but we can be sure of process stability if there are no signals.

Likewise, we can take issue with using the process capability indices Pp, Ppk, Cp and Cpk in this manner. All assume a normal distribution, which you only get with a stable process, so you shouldn’t trust them as measures of process capability. In this case, that’s fine: don’t report the actual values; just report the ratio of Cp to Pp or Cpk to Ppk. When the ratio is 1, the process is stable; the larger the ratio, the worse the process. Donald Wheeler discusses this use of Ppk and Cpk, and the measures’ relation to production costs, in his latest column for Quality Digest.

Whether or not the process is economical (i.e. Cpk and Ppk are high enough) is a question completely separate from stability.

Update:

I was discussing this with a friend who, for various reasons, needs to allow for some process drift. In other words, a Ppk less than Cpk is expected and acceptable, but only up to a certain point. The nice thing about the Cpk/Ppk ratio is that it’s simple: a ratio of 1 means the process is stable; a ratio greater than 1 means the process is not stable; a ratio of less than 1 means someone has made a mistake or is lying. If we need to allow for some process drift, we lose this simplicity.

So suppose that we have a Cpk of 1.66. There are then five standard deviations between the process mean and the nearest specification limit. Assuming a process drift of 1.5 Sigmas, our Ppk is 1.16, giving us a ratio Cpk/Ppk of 1.43. If, however, our Cpk is 1.00, then a process drift of 1.5 Sigmas gives us a Cpk/Ppk ratio of 2.00.

With an allowed process drift of a fixed number of Sigma, it’s no longer so simple to determine, from the Cpk/Ppk ratio, whether or not a process is “stable” within the limits set by management.

A slightly more sophisticated calculation is needed, then. What we can calculate is the ratio

(Short Term Sigma – Long Term Sigma) / Allowed Process Drift

If the result is less than or equal to 1, then the process is “good enough” (i.e. within our allowed drift). If the ratio is greater than 1, then the process is considered out of control and action needs to be taken to eliminate sources of variation. If the ratio is less than 0, then someone made a mistake or is lying (i.e. long-term Sigma can never be less than short-term Sigma).