Numeracy for Everyone

A P Gore is currently Head, Department of Statistics, University of Pune. He initiated teaching and research in ecological statistics at Pune. He has been active for many years in promoting interaction between statisticians and biologists.

S A Paranjpe is Reader in the Department of Statistics, University of Pune. She has long experience of applying statistics in the fields of nutrition, forestry, ecology, agriculture and health.

If we ask a typical student of standard twelve about what her/his choice of higher education is, a very likely answer would be ‘medicine’ or ‘engineering’. This is understandable in view of high employability, prestige and remuneration associated with these professions. There is a common belief that while students going to medicine need not be well versed in mathematics, those opting for engineering have to be. So it may come as a surprise to many that mathematics as practised in a typical engineering course does not prepare students in two crucial quantitative aspects of industrial environment viz. quality and profit. The purpose of this article is to highlight mathematical/statistical tools commonly used in quality improvement and optimization.

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Address for Correspondence
A P Gore and S A Paranjpe 
Department of Statistics 
University of Pune 
Pune 411 007, India.
Email: apgore@stats.unipune.ernet.in