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Efficiency Chart...looking for some pop.

H

hitmanwa

New Member
Wondered if anyone had any suggestions. This is the best I've come up with but I was hoping someone had some nice ideas for the chart or the data.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65191455/EffSample.xlsx


Here's a 2nd try.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65191455/Copy%20of%20EffSample-2.xlsx


Thanks,
 
Hi, hitwanma!

While not being a chart specialist I think that your first graphics are very clear, not overloaded, simple and... I just liked them!

It's my humble opinion, maybe other contributors can help you more technically, sure they can.

And about the second ones, well nice effects but they don't add any value to the data shown, and that's the goal of any chart.

Hope have aided even a little.

Regards!
 
Thanks JB,


Yes, you helped me. I tend to try to over complicate sometimes and I went back and looked at the first one and you are right. It's nice, simple and gets the point across.


TYVM,
 
Hi ,


I am not clear on what the Department chart is supposed to show. Can you clarify ?


When I sorted the original data on the efficiency figures , the chart did not reveal anything.


The department chart is showing points 26 downwards , which means it is showing the efficiency column values in the reverse order ; what is the reason for this ?


I think the starting point in any presentation ( a chart is a presentation ) , is to define your viewpoint ; what do you want to bring out ? Can you write down this in a few words ?


Narayan
 
The chart shows the efficiency of a particular department for the month and the reasons for the downtime which equates to lost efficiency. The efficiency is just a formula based on actual output vs the designed output. If the Department is at 80% then we're trying to highlight what caused the 20% loss in efficiency. The chart is intended to present the information to employes within the department so they know where they are in relationship to their goal.


I used numbers to begin with to eliminate the dates with no data but I'll have to stick with the dates so it makes more sense. I have since flipped it so it starts with 1/1/12 at the top down to 1/31/12.
 
Hi ,


OK. Lets start with this - given that a department's efficiency is below a certain benchmark , you wish to analyse the reasons for this inadequacy.


Is it possible that you can have a chart of efficiencies , department-wise ( you already have this , but it needs to be sorted in some order , either department-wise or efficiency-wise ; the chart you have at present does not show the individual department names ) , and clicking on any department figure , should bring up a pie-chart or a column chart showing the causes for the department's performance. Is this possible ?


Narayan
 
I'm not sure that this is working. How about a conditionally formatted column chart?
 
The first chart is now sorted as it should be, by date. The chart is for 1 department and efficiencies run top to bottom Jan 2 through Jan 31.


Dan, I'm not sure what you mean by a conditionally formatted column chart. Sounds interesting though.
 
Hi ,


OK. So the entire worksheet and chart is for only one department.


Now , if you have the efficiency figures for each day , is it really necessary to chart the figures for each day ? Can you not chart only the exceptions ?


A better way of showing a department's performance would be to have a bell chart , which will clearly highlight the outliers i.e. how spread out / inconsistent is the performance ? If the bell is very sharp , and there are very few outliers , it means that the department is focused and doing a good job of controlling inefficiency.


Narayan
 
Try this.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1275899/EffSample-d.xlsx


I'm sort of short on mental energy tonight, but if I'm understanding your correctly, those numbers are all positive. That's funny, because I think the chart had me searching for negative numbers, because that's the only reason I can think of to have the axis in the center.


Maybe I'm totally confused.
 
Thanks Dan, so easy I'm almost embarrassed. You are right, I was using 80% as the benchmark and should not have displayed it like that.


Narayank, I'm look at the bell chart, I haven't done one in excel before but am curious to see what it looks like with this data.


Thanks all,
 
Don't be embarrassed. Ok. I'll let you be embarrassed about the gradient color thing; but really that's for your own good so it's cool.


Just a though: give a read to this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartjunk


Part of the trick is to go through each item on the chart and say "does this really need to be here?". In the case of the example above, I could see a reasonable argument that the formatting itself is rendered unnecessary because the target line is there. But, it I don't think that really takes away from the chart or makes it more difficult to read.


clear as mud, yeah?
 
This is what I got with the bell curve. I'm not entirely sure I did it right. Why would I get values over 100%?


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65191455/2.xlsx
 
No, Managers and employees. A couple are engineers but that's it. I plan on using what I got from you to present to them but I was just playing with the bell chart for myself. I've always wondered how to make one in excel but it was just for me. I think I got it worked out, have to play with some of the bins and such and the "More" at the end of the Histogram throws the axis off but I'm just manually adjusting it.
 
Ahk.


I was going to say: unless your audience would understand the bell chart, don't use the bell chart:)


So what will you be using for this?
 
Good call. You might also appreciate using a something like SfE. That would let you do some really slick looking microcharts.


And don't forget bullets!!
 
Hi, hitwanma!

Arriving at dessert-time and not being a chart specialist nor a chart lover and having seen all the chart variations proposed, my maybe your-audience-alike opinion is that the very first chart of all is still the most clear, easy and efficient.

Just my another two-cents in comparison with the hundred of bucks of previous contributors.

Regards!
 
Thanks Sir,


Still playing around a bit with it. How's this look?


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65191455/Latest.xlsx
 
I would seriously avoid the axis at 80%. It really doesn't do what you think it does.
 
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