The long-range contribution of statistics depends not so much upon getting a lot of highly trained statisticians into industry as it does in creating a statistically minded generation of physicists, chemists, engineers, and others who will in any way have a hand in developing and directing the production processes of tomorrow. The fundamental difference between engineering with and without statistics boils down to the difference between the use of a scientific method based upon the concept of laws of nature that do not allow for chance or uncertainty and a scientific method based upon the concept of laws of probability as an attribute of nature. If quality and productivity are to improve from current levels, changes must be made in the way things are presently being done. We should like to have good data to serve as a rational basis on which to make these changes. Statistics is the science that addresses this twin question.
All measurements are subject to variation.
The minute a statistician steps into the position of the executive who must make decisions and defend them, the statistician ceases to be a statistician. Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment. T.S.Eliot One picture is worth more than ten thousand words. The only useful function of a statistician is to make predictions, and thus to provide a basis for action. The most powerful mathematical tools are sometimes less important to the engineer than some of the simpler or less powerful tools.