What is a manufacturing dashboard and why is it important?
A manufacturing dashboard is a visual tool that compiles and displays crucial data relating to the production process. It focuses on the performance of production lines and equipment and includes production metrics (production volume, downtime, product quality, etc.). All information and production KPIs must be visible and understandable to users at a glance.
Its main objective is to improve production efficiency by providing an immediate, concise, comprehensive overview of current manufacturing operations.
Manufacturing dashboards offer many benefits:
- Improved decision-making: Managers can make more informed decisions based on accurate, up-to-date information.
- Real-time monitoring and control: By visualizing and tracking production performance in real-time, problems can be identified quickly and corrected immediately.
- Improved productivity and efficiency: By analyzing production data, companies can identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
- Reduce downtime and optimize maintenance: A manufacturing dashboard helps predict breakdowns and plan maintenance proactively, reducing downtime.
- Improved quality control: By tracking quality indicators, companies can maintain high standards and reduce production defects.
Operational and manufacturing dashboards complement each other for effective management and informed decision-making in a manufacturing company.
Key steps to create a useful, effective manufacturing dashboard
1. Define your objectives
Before creating a manufacturing dashboard, it's essential to determine what you want to achieve. Determining clear production goals will guide your choice of indicators to track, whether you want to improve productivity, reduce operational costs, or increase quality.
2. Identify key performance indicators
Which aspects of production are most important to your company (quantity of products manufactured, product quality, machine efficiency, production times, etc.)?
Once you've answered this question, choose the appropriate key metrics. For example, if you want to improve the efficiency of your production line, you could select indicators such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), performance, and quality. If product quality is a priority, a relevant KPI might be defect rate.
Ensure the manufacturing KPIs you choose are measurable and relevant to your production objectives.
3. Select your data sources
Identify the relevant data sources to feed your manufacturing dashboard. This can include production management systems, IoT sensors, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and manual data.
Data must be reliable, accurate, up-to-date, and relevant to your production objectives for optimal use.
4. Choose the right dashboard creation tool
There are many tools available for creating manufacturing dashboards. Choose the solution that best meets your company's needs. You need a tool that makes creating and updating the dashboard easy, offers customization, and is compatible with your data sources.
The UTrakk platform is reliable for centralizing and visualizing data in real-time, offering clear, actionable insights. It facilitates analysis of the various performance axes and prioritizes the actions to be taken.
5. Create your data visualization
Your manufacturing dashboard's visual representation must be clear and intuitive. Use graphs, charts, and other visual indicators to make the data easy to understand for everyone who needs to consult it.
6. Adjust your dashboard
Once your manufacturing dashboard is in place, test and adjust it according to feedback and operational needs. This will ensure that it remains relevant and useful over the long term.
7 examples of high-performing manufacturing dashboards
1. Global manufacturing KPIs dashboard
Objective: Monitor overall production performance.
Key metrics:
- Production rate: Number of units produced per period.
- Lost units: Number of units lost due to defects or errors.
- Machine productivity: Individual productivity of each machine.
- Operator availability: Operator availability on production lines.
This dashboard enables managers to make decisions on production and labor efficiency.
2. Machine downtime dashboard
Objective: Minimize downtime and optimize maintenance.
Key metrics:
- Total downtime: Percentage of downtime per period.
- Causes of downtime: Main causes of production stoppages, color-coded.
- Maintenance costs: Maintenance costs associated with downtime.
This manufacturing dashboard helps to identify the most problematic machines, and to find solutions to reduce downtime.
3. Production quality dashboard
Objective: Improve the quality of manufactured products.
Key metrics:
- Defect density: Percentage of defects in relation to total production.
- Return rate: Number of products returned by customers.
- Defects by product: Most common defects for each product.
This dashboard lets managers quickly identify quality problems and implement corrective actions to improve production standards.
4. Production cost management dashboard
Objective: Control and optimize production costs.
Key metrics:
- Cost breakdown: Detailed costs of materials, tools, and labor.
- Average cost per component: Average cost of each component produced.
- Total cost per unit: Total cost of production per unit over a given period.
This manufacturing dashboard lets you visualize costs and identify opportunities to reduce expenditure without compromising quality.
5. Inventory management dashboard
Objective: Optimize inventory management and reduce stock-outs.
Key metrics:
- Stock levels: Current stock levels by product.
- Days of supply: Number of days of supply available.
- Stock turnover rate: Frequency with which stocks are renewed.
- Product return rate: Percentage of returned products in relation to total stock.
Using this dashboard, managers can ensure that stock levels are optimized and the risk of stock-outs is minimized.
6. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) dashboard
Objective: Monitor and optimize the efficiency of production equipment.
Key metrics:
- Availability: Percentage of time equipment is operational versus total planned time.
- Performance: Actual production speed compared to ideal or planned speed.
- Quality: Percentage of compliant products in relation to total products manufactured.
- Total OEE: Overall indicator of equipment effectiveness obtained by combining the three critical metrics above.
This manufacturing dashboard enables managers to visualize the main causes of efficiency loss and identify the corrective actions needed to improve the overall performance of production equipment.
7. Health and safety dashboard
Objective: Improve workplace safety and reduce accidents.
Key metrics:
- Accident rate: Number of accidents occurring in a given period.
- Incidents by type: Incidents classified by type (falls, cuts, collisions, etc.).
- Hours worked without accident: Number of hours or days worked without accident.
- Severity rate: Severity of accidents in terms of days lost from work.
- Safety training: Percentage of employees having received safety training.
- Safety observations: Safety observations and reports submitted by staff members.
This dashboard enables managers to monitor safety incidents, identify trends and danger zones, and take proactive measures to improve workplace safety.
Actionable manufacturing dashboards with UTrakk
The Dashboards module of UTrakk Daily Management System (DMS) offers powerful features that let you easily create highly personalized dashboards, including data and key performance indicators to monitor, measure, and adjust production.
- Automated data integration: With UTrakk, you can automatically integrate your manufacturing data by connecting external software such as MES and PMS (OEE). This gives managers a complete and real-time view of production KPIs, from a single, robust platform.
- Multiple visualization options: Several options enable you to visualize your data in the optimal display. The DMS supports both standard diagrams (bar charts, column charts, curves, pie charts, etc.) and specialized diagrams (safety crosses).
New: You can now create fully configurable SQCDP diagrams by selecting the KPI and letter that correspond to the chosen performance axis. At a glance, you can see the status of your critical indicators, quickly assess underperforming areas and create corrective actions directly from your diagrams.
- Red or green indicators: Data is presented in red or green, depending on compliance with the associated KPI. This improves visibility on performance in your different production areas, enabling you not only to be informed of any variance in real time, but also to take immediate corrective action.
- Link a dashboard to a ritual: UTrakk DMS gives you the ability to link a manufacturing dashboard to your rituals such as production meetings. This means you can track production metrics and monitor performance during meetings, active supervision tours, and audits, without ever leaving the Rituals module.
Improve your plant's competitiveness with effective manufacturing dashboards
The implementation of manufacturing dashboards increases operational efficiency, responsiveness, quality, profitability, and innovation. By presenting a detailed, real-time overview of operations, they support managers in making informed decisions, anticipating problems, and rapidly implementing corrective action. By investing in these tools, managers can transform their operations, achieve new productivity levels, and create a sustainable competitive advantage.
When creating enlightening manufacturing dashboards, UTrakk offers a complete, tailored solution. Thanks to its advanced functionality and flexibility, this tool enables you to create your own manufacturing dashboards according to your plant's specific needs, ensuring that the most relevant information is always at hand (and in sight). This DMS also encourages proactive management and continuous improvement of the production process.
Using manufacturing dashboards supported by platforms such as UTrakk is a recommended practice and a necessity for any plant wishing to remain competitive and efficient in today’s ever-changing manufacturing industry.
