The Unscrambler® statistical

Multivariate Data Analysis refers to any statistical technique used to analyze data that arises from more than one variable. This essentially models reality where each situation, product, or decision involves more than a single variable.

The information age has resulted in masses of data in every field. Despite the quantum of data available, the ability to obtain a clear picture of what is going on and make intelligent decisions is a challenge. When available information is stored in database tables containing rows and columns, Multivariate Analysis can be used to process the information in a meaningful fashion.

Multivariate analysis methods are typically used for:

- Consumer and market research.

- Quality control and quality assurance across a range of industries such as food and beverage, paint, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and telecommunications.

- Process optimization and process control

- Research and development.

With Multivariate Analysis you can:

- Obtain a summary or an overview of a table. This analysis is often called Principal Components Analysis or Factor Analysis. In the overview, it is possible to identify the dominant patterns in the data, such as groups, outliers, trends, and so on. The patterns are displayed as two plots.

- Analyze groups in the table, how these groups differ, and to which group individual table rows belong. This type of analysis is called Classification and Discriminant Analysis.

- Find relationships between columns in data tables, for instance relationships between process operation conditions and product quality. The objective is to use one set of variables (columns) to predict another, for the purpose of optimization, and to find out which columns are important in the relationship. The corresponding analysis is called Multiple Regression Analysis or Partial Least Squares (PLS), depending on the size of the data table.