Written by Nils R. | Apr 1, 2021 7:00:00 AM
What is a
Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboard
? Capacity Utilization Dashboards are considered operational analysis tools and are used by Plant- and Production Managers to monitor capacity and utilization metrics. Some of the main functionality in this type of dashboard is that it provides analysis from three different angles, including: 1) Capacity utilization - current and prior year monthly metrics by plant with tons (weight), output and utilization %, 2) Chart that compares current and prior year utilization across selected plants, and 3) Capacity utilization trend for current and prior year. The user can select and unselect plants and years on the top of the screen. You find an example of this type of dashboard below.
Purpose of
Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboards Manufacturing companies use Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboards to enable production and plant managers to benchmark utilization metrics across their plants as well as analyze trends. When used as part of good business practices in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and operations departments, an organization can improve its efficiency and process improvement focus, and it can reduce the chances that low performers or outlier metrics are missed for longer than necessary.
Example of a
Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboard Here is an example of a Capacity Utilization Dashboard with plant benchmarking and trend analysis. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"]
Example of a Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboard for a Manufacturing Company[/caption] You can find hundreds of additional examples
here
Who Uses This Type of
Dashboard
? The typical users of this type of dashboard are: Executives, analysts, plant managers, production managers.
Other Reports Often Used in Conjunction with
Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboards Progressive Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and operations departments sometimes use several different Plant Capacity Utilization Dashboards, along with efficiency reports, sales forecasts, production planning, backlog reports, open orders reports, profitability dashboards and other management and control tools.
Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.
What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards? Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
- Native ERP report writers and query tools
- Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
- Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Cloud Solutions and More Examples
