Tag: tail graph
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The typical tail graph
In a previous post, I discussed two types of sales history: raw and collapsed. The collapsed sales history can be displayed in a table or spreadsheet, with a special column for volume. If this table is sorted on decreasing volume, then the most popular configurations (popcons) will be at the top. The graph with the volumes displayed in decreasing order (popcons on the left) is called the tail graph
We have drawn tail graphs for cars, computers, washing machines, lighting fixtures, trucks and tractors, and they all look basically the same. The first tail graph shown below is small but typical. It represents 2,884 tractors, with 1,997 unique configurations, or build combinations. On average, there are 1.44 units per unique configuration. The most popular configuration was ordered 23 times. The graph quickly drops to two of a kind and finally one of a kind (our technical terms are “twosies” and “onesies”). Combined, the onesies and twosies account for 2,000 tractors, or 69% of total volume. Rather high, though this number is usually at least 40%.
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