The goal of this exercise is to give you experience applying Chapter 12's guidelines for constructing usable, persuasive bar graphs, line graphs, and tables.
The Exercise
You are an industrial engineer working for NEC, an engineering consulting company, researching a customer's printing requirements. Your goal is to determine the printing volume of each of the company's four divisions in order to understand their requirements for new printers. You have collected a four-year history of their average daily volume, which you want to include in the next progress report to your supervisor. You want to present this data in an effective visual aid that will be part of your report. Your objective for this visual aid is twofold:
You have gathered the following information:
Four years ago, the average daily printing volume for the Engineering Division was 1960 pages; the Finance Division, 680 pages; the Executive Division, 360 pages; the Support Division, 1160 pages.
Three years ago, the average daily printing volume for the Engineering Division was 2160 pages; the Finance Division, 870 pages; the Executive Division, 440 pages; the Support Division, 1320 pages.
Two years ago, the average daily printing volume for the Engineering Division was 1890 pages; the Finance Division, 1300 pages; the Executive Division, 420 pages; the Support Division, 1450 pages.
Last year, the average daily printing volume for the Engineering Division was 1720 pages; the Finance Division, 1480 pages; the Executive Division, 340 pages; the Support Division, 1560 pages.
Your Assignment
If your instructor requests, create the following graphics using a word processing or spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Word or Excel.