Concerns/Questions as we Begin

The setting I find myself in is very different from having the job as a teacher. As a teacher, I am in control of the big picture. I make the decisions based off of the goals that my students need to achieve. I am very well aware of the big picture problems and where things need to move.

It is somewhat of a transition due to the fact that I am not the “boss”. I am not in control of the big picture and problems. I feel we are still in the process of accomplishing what the company’s goals are with me? I just submitted the first task, and I feel this need of approval before I would continue organizing the data in the way I did. I need to know if the work I did is helpful. I see this as applicable in my classroom. Students, just as much as I, need that big picture. They need to know what we are trying to get at and/or trying to solve, so they feel their efforts and contributions are accomplishing something. I already feel I gained significantly from the task I did, but now I feel the need to make sure continuing to do this task benefits the company.

Simply said, I am concerned that I am taking more than I am giving so far in this experience.

Progress/Achievements

My first and ongoing task is to look at time production trends. I have now had a small experience of being a company’s data analyst. I have found out that being a data analyst requires you to look at A LOT of numbers. The true challenge is to be able to pick out trends and then be able to illustrate the trends in ways easy for others to read and interpret.

I was asked to complete the task of comparing the time production averages over the years. Merrill keeps a close record of every single part it manufactures. I looked at the total amount of time that goes into each part and the total production amount of each part in the years of 2009, 2010, and 2011. With this information, I was able to see the unit time it took to create each item. For example, in 2010 Merrill recorded it produced 47,880 units of part A1M and it took 26,725 minutes (A1M is a product code that when looked up in the catalog is a head casting piece to one of hydrants). Thus, in 2010, in took about .558 minutes to make one unit.

I had this huge list of all of these pieces and I needed to figure out how I could present this data, so it was useful- or, so that the useful information was clear and easy to pick out when so much background data surrounds it.

As I worked with Excel and organized the data, I started to play around with the question of “What trends given this particular data would be most helpful for the business to know?” I decided that focusing on the rate of change over the years would be best. I made one production time sheet that just looked at how the 2011 unit rate compared with the average rate. I then made another production time sheet that looked at the rate of change from one year to the next.

This work serves as an application to my classroom in many ways: 1.) Unit rates, 2.) Averages and different ways of calculating averages, 3.) Comparing decimal numbers, and 4.) Figuring out how to portray and communicate data. My students could look at one item and make predictions about how future production based off of an equation they could formulate from the given data. They could make graphs and analyze the ups and downs.

I have a lot of data I can play around with and use in story problems and activities for my classes. There is always plenty to do and learn about when it comes to application and activity design for lessons.