To complete this project, select a local business of your choice. Examples include, but are not limited to, a movie theater, state-operated toll booth, supermarket, fast food restaurant, car wash, or a retailer like TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, or Best Buy.

Imagine you have just been hired as the new manager. As a good manager, you want to have a solid understanding of the business operations processes so you can determine if the business is operating efficiently, timely, and at a profit.

You are to go observe your business and view it from a data-gathering and quantitative analysis approach. For example, if you choose a car wash, how many cars entered the wash? What times did they arrive? What type of wash did they get? (You can ask the manager if you can record data). What type of car was it? Was there correlation in the wash type and car? You have to think critically about this scenario. Remember, you are the new manager, so you want to make an impact and improve processes.

As you can see, data are gathered, recorded, and then analyzed to determine the findings (what do the data tell you?). A car wash may use the data to hire more people during certain times, to refill soap in the machine during down times, or even raise the price on certain washes for more revenue. You have to think critically and creatively when you observe your business.

After you have completed all of the quantitative findings on the processes, you are to write a paper that analyzes your selected business. At a minimum, you should accomplish the following tasks.

• Describe the business and how quantitative analysis can be used to make it more efficient.
• Explain the quantitative processes you used to analyze the business.
• Determine if the business exhibits any type of distribution? What type? Explain your findings.
• Outline the decision-making steps with regard to your analysis.
• Is there correlation or causation in your findings? Explain.
• Examine the coefficient of determination and the coefficient of correlation, and deduce their meanings. In your response to this, explain the four values of the correlation coefficient.
• Summarize your data findings from the business you selected.
• Display any computations you used (probability, distributions, decision trees).

Your completed project must be at least four pages in length. It should include an introduction section where you include what you will prove regarding the quantitative analysis tools you used, the main points of your paper, and a conclusion section that includes a summary of what the data display about your selected business and how it could improve.