Linear regression - predicting a continuous outcome

There are a variety of statistical techniques available that can be used for prediction. Their usage is defined by the type of the dependent variable (continuous/categorical). A different technique or algorithm is required to solve these two different categories. We can use linear regression to predict a continuous variable and logistic regression for a categorical variable. A plethora of other techniques are available for these cases, but let's start solving the problem of predicting a continuous variable using linear regression.

Prelude

Before we begin understanding what we are going to build, let's take a moment to clearly understand the requirements from John's team and also study about how they plan to use the results. The team needs our help in building a system that can predict the actual quality parameter (Output Quality Parameter 2) before the manufacturing process. The team of technicians and store managers plan the production a...