A few numbers that are right. Not a screen full of charts.
A dashboard is only worth something when the numbers under it come off the shop floor and not out of a manual posting. Once registration happens by itself, it stops being about reporting and becomes the question of which two or three numbers actually steer your operation.
We start with the question you answer by hand today, and see whether the records already hold the answer.
Sound familiar?
At most companies reporting costs more time than it delivers. This is what that looks like.
- The monthly overview is put together by hand in a spreadsheet.
- Everyone looks at a different number and nobody knows which one is right.
- A question from the board costs half a day of digging.
- By the time the figures land they are a week old and steer nothing.
- Dashboards have been built that nobody ever opened again.
What it costs
What manual reporting costs per year
Reports per month
Hours per report
Months
Per year
180 hours
Calculated with euros per hour, and with the share of the theoretical gain you actually achieve:
- Conservative
- 72 hours3,240 euros per year
- Expected
- 108 hours4,860 euros per year
- Potential
- 144 hours6,480 euros per year
Worked example based onsix recurring reports a month that each cost two and a half hours to gather and check. Only the assembling, without the time that goes into arguing over which number is right. Not a measurement at a customer. The numbers are adjustable: put your own situation in and the outcome follows along.
How a dashboard stays usable
Do not start with what you can show, but with the decision you want to make. Anything that does not steer a decision does not belong on it.
01 / The records are the source
Every reading arrives with item, place and time. Nothing gets typed in on the side, so no second truth grows next to the first.
02 / Back to a handful of numbers
Stock level, deviation against the administration, read rate, lead time per passage. Which of those you need depends on what you want to adjust; the rest is noise with a chart around it.
03 / Export it where it belongs
What belongs in your ERP, WMS or BI environment goes there. STOCKflow does not want to be the screen everyone stares at all day, it wants to be the source those screens are right about.
What the dashboards do and do not do
What the dashboards do and do not do
Wel
- Show stock level and deviation based on what was actually read
- Show per scanning session what was found and what was missing
- Show the read rate, so you know how solid a number is
- Report once something has been in a zone or a step longer than agreed
- Export data to your ERP, WMS or BI environment
Niet
- Replace your ERP or BI package
- Show figures about processes that hold no reading moment
- Make a number more reliable than the record under it
- Predict what is going to happen: this is observation, not a forecast
A dashboard inherits the quality of its source and never improves it. That is why the read rate is always shown alongside: a stock level based on eighty percent of tags read is a different number from the same level based on ninety-nine percent, and you should see that difference without having to ask.
What changes in practice
The report without handwork
No merging six files on Monday morning. The figures are there, and they come from the records themselves.The gap before it is a problem
A zone that drifts shows up in the week it starts and not at the annual count.One figure nobody argues about
The same source for purchasing, planning and the floor. The meeting is about the choice and not about the data.The trend per zone
Where is it draining away, and since when. That is the question a once-a-year count can never answer.
What this looks like in your operation
The same solution lands differently on a production floor than in a warehouse. Pick your own situation and you will see what changes for you, and what a Proof of Value measures there.
Manufacturing & material flow
Less searching for material, less manual posting and stock that adds up. Start with a small, paid Proof of Value on one material flow.
Logistics, warehousing & distribution
Receive, count and ship goods with fewer manual scans and fewer errors. Prove it first on one inbound or outbound process.
Assets & equipment
Find tools, equipment and carriers faster and lose fewer of them. Measure your time spent searching and prove it on one asset category.
How we prove it: a small, paid Proof of Value
We take one question you answer by hand today and see whether the records from the test can already answer it, and how solid that answer is.
Scope
- One recurring question or report
- The records from the same Proof of Value, no separate data collection
- A comparison with today's manual answer
- The read rate is stated with every number
- The export format towards your existing systems is settled
Go or no-go
After the test you know whether that number can be produced automatically and how reliable it is. If the answer is less solid than the manual one, we say so. A dashboard number that looks good but is not right does more damage than a spreadsheet everyone knows was filled in by hand.
What you are probably thinking
We already have a BI tool, what does this add?
Your BI tool shows what goes into it. The problem is usually not the display but the source: it is filled in by hand and it lags. This gives you a source that comes about by itself. What you then do with the display is up to you and may well stay in your existing tool.
Do we get connections to our ERP as well?
Yes, but not as the first step. The connection comes once the physical workflow is right: labels in the right place, reading moments that fit the work, people who can handle it. Connecting to a process that does not work yet only gives you faster wrong data.
How many reports are included?
That is the wrong question, and we would rather turn it around: which decision do you want to make more often or faster. That usually comes down to two or three numbers. A list of forty standard reports sounds generous but is the fastest route to a screen nobody opens any more.