{"id":658,"date":"2016-01-28T14:55:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T21:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/?p=658"},"modified":"2022-05-10T14:36:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T20:36:51","slug":"the-correct-way-to-draw-a-pareto-chart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/the-correct-way-to-draw-a-pareto-chart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Correct Way to Draw a Pareto Chart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I first learned how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/pareto-chart-excel\/\">draw Pareto charts<\/a> by hand using\u00a0<em>engineering\u00a0paper<\/em> if you can believe it. Our trainers were very specific about how they were to be drawn. One of the earliest references I can find is Kaoru Ishikawa&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Guide to Quality Control<\/em>. Here&#8217;s the correct way to draw a Pareto chart using data from Ishikawa&#8217;s book:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-660\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-chart-guide-to-quality-control-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pareto Chart of Defect Data from Ishikawa's Guide to Quality Control\" width=\"600\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-chart-guide-to-quality-control-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-chart-guide-to-quality-control-1-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-chart-guide-to-quality-control-1-115x91.jpg 115w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><br \/>\nThe bars should be touching and the cumulative percentage line should go from corner to corner of the first bar.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, most Pareto charts drawn by computer look like the following one, bars not touching and cumulative line running out of the center of the top of the first bar. This isn&#8217;t how it should be done.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-661\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-excel.jpg\" alt=\"Excel Pareto Chart\" width=\"297\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-excel.jpg 297w, https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pareto-excel-115x70.jpg 115w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the right way to draw a Pareto chart. It&#8217;s a primitive attempt, but still incorrect.<\/p>\n<p>If you want people to trust your Six Sigma improvement project, isn&#8217;t it time to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/pareto-chart-excel\/\">start drawing Pareto charts the right way?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I first learned how to draw Pareto charts by hand using&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;paper if you can believe it. Our trainers were very specific about how they were to be drawn. One of the earliest references I can find is Kaoru Ishikawa&rsquo;s&nbsp;Guide to Quality Control. Here&rsquo;s the correct way to draw a Pareto chart using data from Ishikawa&rsquo;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[41,174,70,170],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qi-macros","category-six-sigma","tag-excel","tag-ishikawa","tag-pareto-chart","tag-six-sigma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4287,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}