Question

The production manager for a manufacturer of glass jars, who is concerned about the proper jar size to manufacture, has sample data on jar sizes ordered by customers. Would the mean, median, or modal jar size be of most value to the manager?

Answer 1

The mean of a list is the average of all values of the list.

The median is the middle value of the list.

The modal value is the reference value.

Mean and Median are not important to the Production Manager.

Let us say, Production Manager expecting a Jar of size 50 Units.

Let us say the 10 Jars of size 40 and 10 jars of size 60 units.

The vendor has all jars of size 40 and 60 Units. The mean still gives 50 Units. But none of the Jars is useful for the manager.

The median of above numbers also gives 50 units. This is not useful information.

The modal number which is 50, is useful

If the vendor says he has Jars of size 50 or not based on given modal number.