Causes of defective cereal boxes
This diagram explains the meaning of the cumulative proportions that are drawn on a sorted bar chart to form a Pareto diagram.
Click on the bar for Dirty to stack the bars for the three most common causes and explain that the stacked height gives the cumulative proportion. (You can similarly click on any other bars to stack all bars to the left.)
Explain that the cumulative proportions are often drawn against a different axis from that used for the bar heights. Click Separate scale for cumulative propns to expand the scale for the bar heights on the left.
A manufacturer of breakfast cereals has received complaints about defective boxes of corn flakes being shipped to supermarkets. The output from one week was checked for defects and the following table shows the main reasons for boxes being rejected as defective.