Statistics and Quality Improvement
本文回顾了统计学史上实践推动理论发展的案例，并探讨当前质量革命如何促使重新审视统计思想，包括统计作为学习催化剂、推断的双重性质及实验设计问题。
Periods of intense practical activity in statistics have traditionally been times for reexamination of old ideas and development of new ones. Familiar examples are the ferment at Rothamsted experimental station in the 1920s and 1930s when, under the leadership of Fisher, the need for improved agriculture field trials resulted not only in the concept of designing experiments but also in the analysis of variance and many other fundamental ideas in statistical inference. Again, during World War II, the need for efficient inspection produced sequential tests. Also the need to screen many variables in small experiments led to the development of fractional designs and other orthogonal arrangements. This catalysis of progress by the practice ⇋ theory iteration runs throughout the history of statistics. The present quality revolution is now providing just such a stimulus for rethinking and re‐evaluating many statistical ideas. Among these, discussed here, are the role of statistics as a catalyst to learning, the dual nature of statistical inference and some issues in experimental design.