I recall somebody mentioning that the former definition for insanity is doing an action repeatedly while expecting different results.  Among the interests that I have in organizations is how at times many organizations make the same mistakes; or how sometimes the same mistake might be made by a particular organization repetitively.  So it is fascinating indeed when an airline facing an ice storm encounters much the same complaints from customers after a similar storm the previous year.  I…

I routinely study differences in production between years by charting the data on the same graph. I consider this a popular approach. It makes sense since there is often interest on how the year is shaping up compared to previous years. Moreover, seasonality would be less relevant given that the same seasons are compared between years (assuming the seasons reoccur at around the same time). Below I present some real data from an organization in 1983 comparing production to 1982. I think many…