Manufacturing is an industry where exceptions need to be identified and dealt with, quickly. A manager with responsibility over a number of sites doesn’t just want to see summary KPI’s; actionable information is key. In our sample dashboard, high-level summary information is available at a site level for both Productivity and Efficiency, but this quickly leads into analysis of general trends and exceptions.

Trends across both time and different workgroups is shown for Productivity through a heatmap. Patterns jump out immediately, and struggling or high-performing workgroups are highlighted through colour hue. By clicking on any number of squares on the heatmap, the user is shown actionable information – who are the top performers, and who is under performing?

Process Efficiency is represented by a single comprehensive view of both how a process is performing, and also how each individual machine constituting that process is performing. We can tell at a glance what cluster of machines might deserve attention. Moreover, gross exceptions are highlighted in red and given a label so that follow up information is right at hand. Looking at data as a distribution provides a much more nuanced view of what’s really going on at a business level.

Overall the dashboard is designed to be simple; there is no extraneous information cluttering up valuable real-estate. Every thing is to a purpose. This is greatly facilitated by Tableau’s inbuilt interactivity. You can literally click on ‘Cork’ and the whole dashboard changes. You can select and drag across the line graph to narrow the time-period being analysed. This is both intuitive and allows the design to negate the need for a number of filter boxes.

The above Tableau Manufacturing – Productivity & Efficiency Viz / Dashboard is best viewed on a HD Screen in order to appreciate the benefits of a full overview.