A dashboard showing several lines at once is only useful if its reader knows what to look for. Omar, the owner of Cedar & Co., a domestic brand that buys from Delta Garments on open account, checks a real-time dashboard covering three of his own Make to Stock batches running on three lines at the same time. This lesson teaches how to read that dashboard's own output curves, line against line, to spot a stall while the shift is still running rather than after it ends.
Without knowing how to read a multi-line dashboard, a reader can watch the same screen lesson 26.1.1 and 26.1.2 built the case for, and still miss a stall, simply because three lines' worth of numbers are harder to compare at a glance than one line's own single count. A dashboard's value depends entirely on whether its reader can pick the one line that has stopped out of several that are still running normally.
You need: lesson 26.1.2's output entry (the smallest record a real-time system is built from) is useful background but not required.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: what real-time tracking adds over an end-of-shift count (lesson 26.1.1), recording a single output entry (lesson 26.1.2), and comparing real-time output against a target pace (lesson 26.1.4).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Production dashboard | A live screen or report that shows real-time output across a line's operations, or across several lines at once, updated as output entries arrive. |
| Cumulative output | The running total of pieces or bundles completed at an operation or line, added up from the start of the shift to the current moment. |
| Stalled line | A line whose output has stopped, or fallen well below its usual pace, for longer than a normal short stop explains. |
| Output curve | The line drawn on a dashboard by plotting a line's own cumulative output against time, whose shape shows whether output is climbing steadily, slowing, or flat. |
| Flat stretch | A section of an output curve where cumulative output stops climbing for a period longer than a normal short pause explains. |
A line's cumulative output curve should climb steadily through a shift as bundles keep finishing. A stall shows up as a flat stretch: the curve stops climbing for a period, then either resumes or stays flat. Comparing several lines' own curves side by side on the same dashboard makes a flat stretch obvious, because the other lines keep climbing while the stalled one does not, even though a single number checked once might not look unusual on its own.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Number of lines shown together | A dashboard showing one line, or several lines running different batches at once, as Cedar & Co.'s three lines do. | More lines on one screen make a single flat stretch easier to miss without a habit of scanning every curve, not just the busiest-looking one. |
| Business model of the batches running | An export Make to Order batch like Order A has one fixed shipment date pressing on every line. A domestic Make to Stock batch, as Cedar & Co. runs, has more schedule flexibility, but a stall still wastes the same production time. | A domestic batch's flexibility does not make a stall free; it only changes how urgently it needs fixing today versus this week. |
| How similar the lines' own target paces are | Lines making the same simple style at similar paces, or lines making different styles with very different target paces. | Comparing curves across lines with very different target paces needs each curve read against its own pace, not against another line's curve directly. |
| Dashboard refresh interval | A dashboard refreshing every few minutes, or one refreshing only once an hour. | A slower refresh interval delays how quickly a flat stretch becomes visible, even if the underlying output entries are logged instantly. |
| How the dashboard is laid out | Curves for all lines overlaid on one chart, or a separate small chart per line. | Overlaid curves make comparison faster for someone trained to read them; separate charts can hide a stall if a reader only glances at each one briefly. |
Cedar & Co.'s three domestic batches run on three lines at Delta Garments. Checking the dashboard mid-morning, Omar sees lines 1 and 3's own cumulative output curves climbing at a similar, steady rate. Line 2's curve, however, has been flat for the last 40 minutes, while the other two lines have each added roughly two more bundles' worth of output in that time.
Because Omar is looking at all three curves together, the flat stretch on line 2 is immediately obvious, even though line 2's own total output for the day so far is still a respectable number. A single check of line 2's total alone, without the comparison, would not have shown the same problem as clearly.
The worked numberLine 2's flat stretch cost it roughly 2.1 bundles of output relative to lines 1 and 3, in just 40 minutes. This figure is Cedar & Co.'s own illustrative example built on the batch's shared target pace; the real value of catching it is that Omar can act within the hour rather than discovering the gap only once the day's totals are compared tomorrow.
A common mistake is glancing at a dashboard's current total for each line and comparing only those totals, rather than watching how each line's own curve has moved over the last hour. A line can still show a respectable total for the day while its curve has been flat for the last 40 minutes, because the earlier part of the shift ran well; checking only the current total, without the curve's own recent shape, can miss a stall that started well after the shift began.
A dashboard showing several production lines together lets you compare their curves, not just their current totals. A line that has stopped moving shows up as a flat stretch on its own curve, especially clear when the lines next to it keep climbing steadily. Checking only each line's total number for the day, rather than watching how its curve has actually moved over the last while, can hide a stall that started partway through the shift behind an otherwise decent daily figure.
Mid-afternoon, Omar checks the dashboard again and now sees two lines with concerning curves: line 2's curve has flattened completely for the last 20 minutes, and line 3's curve has slowed to about half its earlier slope over the last 20 minutes, though it is still climbing.
Should Omar call line 3 first, since a slowing line might still be caught before it fully stops, or line 2 first, since it has already gone flat? Decide before opening the answer.
Omar should call line 2 first, since it has already gone flat, not line 3, which is still producing even at a reduced pace.
1. Line 2 has added zero bundles for 20 minutes, meaning it has already fully stopped, while line 3 is still adding output, just more slowly. 2. A fully stopped line accumulates lost output faster than a slowed one, since a slowed line still produces something during the same period a stopped line produces nothing. 3. Line 3's slower pace still allows a short delay in calling without losing all of its remaining output, whereas every additional minute line 2 stays flat is a minute of zero output added directly to the gap.
Omar does not need both lines' problems fully understood before acting; the flat line's zero output makes it the more urgent call regardless of what caused either line's slowdown.
Cedar & Co.'s batch has 3,000 pieces across 50 bundles, with no fixed export date but a real commitment to restock its own 12 shops on a schedule Omar sets. A stall left unaddressed for the rest of an 8-hour shift would cost far more than the roughly 2.1 bundles already lost.
The roughly 24-bundle figure is Cedar & Co.'s own illustrative example of an unaddressed stall's cost across the rest of the shift; it is not fixed, since Omar caught the stall within 20 minutes, but it shows schedule flexibility does not make an unaddressed stall free.
Open the real-time production tracking tracker, "Multi-line dashboard" sheet. Enter each line's own cumulative output at regular time intervals; the sheet plots each line's curve on the same chart and flags any line whose recent slope has flattened compared with the others. Start with Cedar & Co.'s three-line figures above, then track lines of your own.
[Download the real-time production tracking tracker workbook](../../templates/T26-C01-real-time-production-tracking-tracker.xlsx)
1. How does a stalled line typically show up on a real-time production dashboard?
2. Why did comparing all three of Cedar & Co.'s lines together make line 2's stall easier for Omar to spot than checking line 2's total alone?
3. When both line 2 (fully flat) and line 3 (slowed but still producing) show concerning curves at the same time, which should Omar call about first, and why?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production dashboard | لوحة الإنتاج | Tableau de bord de production | Üretim gösterge paneli | A live screen or report that shows real-time output across a line's operations, or across several lines at once, updated as output entries arrive. |
| Cumulative output | الناتج التراكمي | Production cumulée | Kümülatif çıktı | The running total of pieces or bundles completed at an operation or line, added up from the start of the shift to the current moment. |
| Stalled line | خط متوقف | Ligne à l'arrêt | Duran hat | A line whose output has stopped, or fallen well below its usual pace, for longer than a normal short stop explains. |
| Output curve | منحنى الناتج | Courbe de production | Çıktı eğrisi | The line drawn on a dashboard by plotting a line's own cumulative output against time, whose shape shows whether output is climbing steadily, slowing, or flat. |
| Flat stretch | المقطع المسطّح | Segment plat | Düz kesit | A section of an output curve where cumulative output stops climbing for a period longer than a normal short pause explains. |
Next you will learn to compare a real-time dashboard's own numbers against each operation's target pace, to tell a genuine stall from an operation simply running at its normal, slower rate. Back to the course map