Re: two factories, different profile, how to compare?

peter.anderson.1969@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
fellow experts,

lets say I have 2 factories. One in China, the other in Taiwan. Both
are identical, containing the same machines, same brand, manufacture
the same item. All factors are same except their age are different.
This is because the factory in china started operation in 2005 while
that in Taiwan started way in 1995.

As you know machines do breakdown, lets assume that there are 10
machines in each factories.

China - 10 machines, all are 1 years old
Taiwan - 10 machines, all are 10 years old

So now I want to compare the 2006 performance of both factories in
terms of their breakdown trends. plotting their cumulative failure
function, i found out that the curve belonging to Taiwan is much
steeper than China. Meaning the rate of failure is much higher in
Taiwan.

My engineers in Taiwan protest saying that the machines in taiwan are
much older, therefore my way of comparing is not fair.

What in you opinion should I compare, such that everyone is satisfied
that it is a fair comparison?

Many thanks!

Regards,
Peter

When epidemiologists compare morbidity rates between regions they will
generally age standardise the data. This allows for a fairer
comparison between populations that may have different age structures.
I'm wondering if it's possible to weight your data using a similar
approach?

.

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