SAWE Virtual Technical Forum 11 Meeting Recording 2023-09-15

Description

September 15, 2023

Facilitated by:
Robert Zimmerman, Lockheed Martin (Retired)

Have you ever had an unexpected result from weighing or measuring an object? A measurement that is not consistent with those that have come before? These data “outliers” can consume a lot of time and effort to explain/understand. Sometimes they remain a mystery because we are forced to move on due to work flow and resource limitations. But outliers may provide vital information about the health of our processes and we need to understand them.

Outliers are not uncertainties. Outliers are – in general – not foreseeable nor quantifiable and if undetected or untreated may bias the result. Methods exist to categorize extreme values as outliers and to treat them, if necessary.

However, the mass properties industry often has challenges that make this exercise difficult: very small data samples; analysis performed long after hardware has been weighed and shipped (limiting investigation options), are two examples.

This forum aims to gather the most used methods of treating outliers by mass property engineers and to discuss advantages and disadvantages.