Shop-floor dashboards fail for one consistent reason: they are designed for the people who approve the budget, not the people who will use them.
A dashboard that looks impressive in a management review and gets ignored on the floor is a failed dashboard. Here is the process that builds ones that stick.
Start on the floor, not in a meeting room
Before designing anything, spend time watching operators work. What decisions do they make in a shift? What information do they currently look for, and where do they look for it? What causes them to stop what they are doing and check something?
The answers to these questions define what the dashboard needs to show - not what management thinks would be useful.
Design for distance
Shop-floor displays are often mounted on walls and viewed from 10 to 20 feet away. Font sizes, color choices, and information density that work fine on a monitor are unreadable on a display viewed from the far side of a production cell.
Use large type, high contrast, and limit each screen to five or fewer data points. If someone needs to walk up to the screen to read it, you have failed the distance test.
Show actionable information only
Every data point on a floor display should answer a specific question: Am I ahead or behind? Is this machine running or down? Do I have what I need for the next order?
If a number requires context or explanation to be useful, it does not belong on the floor display.
Validate before you go live
Run the display for two weeks before go-live with operators watching it during normal production. Ask them what they look at, what they ignore, and what they wish they could see. Adjust before the launch, not after.
We build production dashboards that operators use. If you want to see examples or talk through your specific environment, reach out.
Have a question about this topic? We work with businesses worldwide.
Get in Touch