Statistical engineering – Part 1: Past and present

After more than a decade since the introduction of Statistical Engineering by Roger Hoerl and Ronald Snee, a group of leading applied statisticians from academia, industry, and government were invited to discuss their perspectives on progress made, the current status of this important movement, and what future Statistical Engineering holds on the path forward in a series of two panel discussion papers. In this first article, the invited panelists focus their discussion on the past and present of Statistical Engineering. They discuss notable advances and current obstacles to progress. They also consider the unique value added by Statistical Engineering, and the possible addition of decision making to the body of knowledge. The format of the article consists of the posed questions from the moderators, a summary of key ideas from all the panelists, and then the individual detailed answers. The goal of this series of articles is to inspire statisticians to consider their possible role to advance the adoption of Statistical Engineering to solve important problems.