A dashboard is a screen of the few measures that matter, updated from live data and readable at a glance. The designer Stephen Few gave a widely used definition in 2004: "A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance". Wikipedia adds that dashboards are typically "linked to regularly updating data sources".
What makes one useful
Few wrote that a dashboard "should consist primarily of high-level summaries, including exceptions". A useful one answers a few recurring questions for a particular person. It shows few measures, each clearly defined, with the trend and target beside each number.
What it can't do
A dashboard can only show what the data behind it separates. If setup and cutting are recorded in one cost pool, no chart can show which costs more.
From Quarri's own work with a lumber and millwork manufacturer: setup, changeover and knife changes made up about 45%+ of one remanufacturing cost pool, against about 28% for the cutting itself.
In a timber business
Each timber dashboard depends on definitions: which volume, which cost, which downtime counts. When two dashboards disagree, in our experience the difference usually starts with a definition rather than a calculation.
What it isn't
A dashboard isn't a report, which lays out detail to be read, and it isn't analysis. It shows that something moved, not why. Nor is it a data source. The numbers come from systems and definitions that need their own care.
What to check
For each measure, ask where its definition is written and which records it uses. Check that the data separates what you need to see, and that it refreshes as often as the decisions it supports.
Quarri for operations teams is built for the people running the crews, the lines and the yard.
Sources
- Stephen Few, "Dashboard Confusion", Perceptual Edge, 20 March 2004: perceptualedge.com
- Wikipedia, "Dashboard (computing)": en.wikipedia.org
- Quarri evidence ledger, E3 (proven)
Quarri is an AI-native data platform for the timber supply chain. It connects buying, production, sales and inventory for forest management, sawmill, wood products and pulp, paper and packaging operators.