Commentary: [Communications between Statisticians and Engineers/Physical Scientists]

Hoadley and Kettenring are to be congratulated for their article addressing the critical issue of how statisticians interact and communicate with engineers and scientists. The article describes the problemthe so-called gap-considers the causes of the gap, and then makes recommendations to resolve the problem. The discussion is general, but some emphasis is placed on communications between research statisticians and research engineers/scientists. For example, it is only these individuals who read journals at the level of Technometrics and Analytical Chemistry and work in "hot" topic areas. It is interesting to consider the much larger group of engineers, managers, and scientists (hereafter called engineers) who work in a manufacturing environment. These people typically have a single university degree, read industry and trade publications-not research journalsand have little or no exposure to statistical methods or thinking. The statisticians who have an opportunity to communicate with this group are a small body of consultants, both private and academic, who sell their services, focusing on quality improvement. How can the problem, causes, and recommendations given by Hoadley and Kettenring be refined if the discussion is limited to these two narrowly defined groups? The question is important because of the tremendous pressures being placed on manufacturers to improve quality and reduce costs to maintain competitive position. This is not the forum for another sermon on the importance of quality improvement. It has been demonstrated, however, that statistics can be an important tool to reduce this pressure, although I cannot agree with the authors that statistics has yet played a major role. The opportunity is there, but success has been realized only in a very limited number of instances. I do believe that it is in the area of quality improvement that statistics can gain the recognition it deserves. Vast sums of money and large numbers of jobs are at stake. Any discipline that makes a substantial contribution will be well rewarded. 2. THE GAP