The “Y” is the main measure of what you’re trying to improve. When conducting process improvement, you’re trying to understand the root causes or “X”s that influence “Y.” On a Box Plot, the “X”s are the different columns or “stratifications” of”Y.” In the Webinar the “Y” was breakage and the “Xs” were the different shifts. In a Scatter Plot, what’s on the “Y” or vertical axis is the dependent variable. We are trying to understand if changes in “X”, the independent variable, correspond to changes in “Y.” In the Webinar, the “X” was the temperature of the Conch Chowder and the Scatter Plot revealed that it had an impact on the “Y” of breakage. Think of “Xs” as causes and “Ys” as effects and that will be a good guide.
