Marc, forgive my ignorance, but whose picture is at the top of the forum (Titled: Our Loss)?

IN MEMORY. We are sad to report that Dorian Shainin passed away on Friday, January 7, 2000, in Manchester, Connecticut. He was 85.

Dorian was the founder of the company that is now Shainin LLC, and the creator of the statistical engineering techniques that formed the basis for Shainin Strategies.
Although Dorian had not been actively working in the firm for a number of years, his earlier contributions--including over 20 statistical engineering tools--were enormous.
Dorian recognized the value of empirical data in solving real-world problems early in his career. He observed that, for any one problem, the total sources of variation were nearly infinite, but that only one cause inevitably accounted for nearly all the unwanted effect. He named this source the Red X(sm), and found that the fastest way to track down the Red X was through a process of elimination.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Barbara Kate Shainin Scholarship Fund, c/o The Manchester Scholarship Foundation, 20 Hartford Road, Manchester, CT 06040.

I've gone through the Shainin Journeymen workshop a few years back. It is by far more real-world, practical application of statistical analysis than some of the other techniques. He will be missed.