STATE COLLEGE, Pa., May 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quality improvement professionals working in the manufacturing industry are often tasked with ensuring their company's products meet intended requirements and specifications. When products fall out-of-spec, practitioners troubleshoot and find a solution.

However, when the troubleshooting involves analyzing data that is not normally distributed, effective solutions can be more difficult to uncover. If nonnormal data goes undetected, or is not analyzed appropriately, problems are likely to get worse.

Quality practitioners can learn to identify and analyze nonnormal data by attending the new Analysis of Nonnormal Data for Quality training course.

This one-day training course is offered by Minitab Inc., the leading provider of software for quality improvement and statistics education. Online registration for this and other Minitab training events is available at http://www.minitab.com/training/schedule/.

The course on analyzing nonnormal data is tailored for professionals working in manufacturing environments, such as the automotive industry, chemical production plants, medical device manufacturers, and others. Course materials include real-world examples with metrics such as diameters, pressure, and hardness.

The course will show quality professionals how to:

• Identify special cause variation in the presence of nonnormal data
• Use graphical methods and statistical tests for detecting nonnormal data
• Choose an appropriate distribution or transformation for an analysis
• Assess the impact of poor measurement resolution and sample size on normality testing

Topics covered will include probability plots, normality tests, capability analysis for nonnormal data, Box-Cox and Johnson transformations, capability analysis for multiple variables, tolerance intervals, individuals control charts, and multiple failure modes analysis.

"Many times, real-world data is not normally distributed," says Jim Colton, Minitab technical training specialist. "This course will help manufacturing quality professionals identify nonnormal data, understand the typical causes of nonnormal data, and use Minitab to analyze their nonnormal data correctly."

Minitab trainers are seasoned statisticians with years of experience in teaching statistics and how to use Minitab. They make complex concepts easy to grasp, and are highly regarded for their engaging teaching style.

Colton, who has more than 15 years of experience as a Minitab trainer, developed his industry skills at companies including Kellogg's and Pratt & Whitney. "Working daily with product developers at Kellogg's and engineers at Pratt & Whitney taught me how to explain statistics in practical terms," he says.

About Minitab Inc.

Minitab Inc. is the leading provider of statistical software for quality improvement worldwide. Thousands of companies in more than 100 countries trust Minitab. More than 4,000 colleges and universities use Minitab for teaching and research.

The company's products include:

• Minitab® 17, the leading statistical software used for quality improvement and statistics education.
• Quality Trainer by Minitab®, an e-learning course that teaches statistics and how to use Minitab Statistical Software.
• Devize®, a powerful Monte Carlo simulation tool for engineers.
• Qeystone®, a project portfolio management platform designed to manage an organization's entire Lean Six Sigma deployment.
• Quality Companion by Minitab®, process improvement software for executing quality improvement projects.

Minitab's products are backed by outstanding services, including training and free technical support.

Headquartered in State College, Pa., Minitab Inc. operates offices in Phoenix, Az., the United Kingdom, France, and Australia and has additional representatives throughout the world.