Dashboard
Plant performance dashboard
OEE, throughput, downtime, and quality by line or shift from MES + ERP.
- Connected to ERP, MES, quality, maintenance, and inventory systems
- Thresholds and owners
- Drill to operational detail
Industry analytics
Power BI for Manufacturing
Manufacturing reviews stall when ERP production orders, MES downtime codes, and QMS NCRs disagree on plant, line, and shift grain. We model those sources in Power BI Import (gateway to on-prem SQL/MES historians where needed) so OEE, scrap, and material shortage use one definition before the daily huddle.
NDA-readyFixed-scope first releaseBusiness + IT handover
- Operating since 2012
- Microsoft Power BI specialists
- NDA-ready data handling
- Fixed-scope first releases
- Independent — not affiliated with Microsoft
Reporting challenges
Typical friction when CRM, ERP, and operational tools are reported separately.
- 01ERP production orders, MES downtime codes, and quality NCRs never share the same shift or plant grain in one report.
- 02OEE is recalculated in Excel with different availability and scrap rules per site.
- 03Inventory and shortage signals arrive after the production meeting, not before material risk.
- 04Finance cost packs and plant performance packs disagree on volume and scrap valuation.
- 05Supply-chain visibility depends on emailed extracts from ERP and WMS instead of a refreshed Power BI model.
How Power BI for Manufacturing solves it
What changes when those systems feed a governed Power BI model.
- Connect ERP + MES + quality into a governed Power BI for manufacturing model with one OEE and yield definition.
- Put plant, line, and shift exceptions on a daily huddle dashboard with owners and thresholds.
- Expose material shortage and supplier OTIF alongside schedule adherence for supply chain visibility.
- Align plant KPIs with finance cost and scrap measures so leadership and operations use the same numbers.
- Automate refresh so manufacturing reporting no longer waits on overnight spreadsheet builds.
Why this work matters commercially
03
Commercial considerations
Manufacturing organizations already manage the business in ERP, MES, quality, maintenance, and inventory systems. The reporting problem is usually not “we need another chart”—it is that CRM, ERP, and operational extracts disagree on timing, filters, and owners before every meeting.
Planners live in ERP; supervisors live on the line; quality and maintenance sit in separate tools—so plant reviews start with spreadsheet merges. Power BI for Manufacturing only works when those systems of record feed one governed semantic model with documented KPI definitions.
Power BI Analytics scopes the first release around the manufacturing decisions that currently wait on manual packs—then connects the right source systems, validates totals, and lands the report in a real operating cadence.
Who this is for
Built for leaders who need dependable numbers in real operating conversations—not another unused dashboard.
01Manufacturing executives who need one operating view across CRM/ERP and plant or field systems
02Finance partners tired of reconciling conflicting system extracts
03Operations and functional managers who need earlier exception visibility
04IT and analytics teams responsible for maintainable Power BI on Microsoft
How value is measured
We establish a baseline before delivery so ROI is discussed in operating terms, not slideware.
01
Time saved
Measure hours currently spent assembling manufacturing reporting packs, reconciling totals, and answering “which number is correct?”
02
Decision speed
Track how many days earlier leaders can see exceptions, variances, or forecast risk after the release.
03
Control and trust
Count disputed metrics, failed refreshes, and unmanaged workbooks replaced by governed models.
04
Adoption
Confirm the intended audience actually uses the report in the meeting or process it was designed for.
Where manufacturing data already lives
Planners live in ERP; supervisors live on the line; quality and maintenance sit in separate tools—so plant reviews start with spreadsheet merges. Power BI consulting connects these systems of record into one governed reporting model.
01
ERP (SAP, Oracle, Dynamics 365, NetSuite)
orders, BOM, inventory, cost
02
MES / SCADA
line throughput, downtime, scrap
03
Quality / QMS
NCRs, first-pass yield, CAPA
04
CMMS / maintenance
MTBF, planned vs unplanned downtime
05
WMS / inventory
raw, WIP, finished goods
KPIs that support action
01
OEE
Availability × performance × quality from MES and ERP, one plant definition.
02
First-pass yield
Units completed without rework from QMS/MES.
03
Schedule adherence
Completed vs planned production from ERP.
04
Inventory turns
Stock velocity supporting production and sales.
Recommended dashboards
Recommended manufacturing dashboards
Power BI for Manufacturing patterns we tailor to your systems, owners, and review cadence. Click any preview to expand.
Dashboard
Supply and inventory dashboard
Shortages, turns, and supplier OTIF for Power BI for supply chain visibility.
- Connected to ERP, MES, quality, maintenance, and inventory systems
- Thresholds and owners
- Drill to operational detail
Operating cadence
Reporting only creates value when it lands in a real review rhythm.
Shift huddle: downtime, scrap, and schedule risk from MES/ERP
Weekly plant performance and quality review
Monthly manufacturing scorecard for leadership and finance
Quarterly model updates for new lines, plants, or ERP modules
Example reports
- 01Manufacturing executive scorecard from governed Power BI measures
- 02Manufacturing operations exception pack by site, team, or account
- 03Variance and root-cause drill-through tied to source systems
- 04Trend, forecast, and owner-threshold report for weekly reviews
What improves
- Connect ERP + MES + quality into a governed Power BI for manufacturing model with one OEE and yield definition.
- Put plant, line, and shift exceptions on a daily huddle dashboard with owners and thresholds.
- Expose material shortage and supplier OTIF alongside schedule adherence for supply chain visibility.
- Align plant KPIs with finance cost and scrap measures so leadership and operations use the same numbers.
- Automate refresh so manufacturing reporting no longer waits on overnight spreadsheet builds.
Frequently asked questions
05
Buyer questions answered
Yes—when availability, performance, and quality pull from agreed MES tags and ERP order completions at the same plant/line/shift grain. We usually Import MES summaries and ERP order facts through an On-premises Data Gateway, mark a plant calendar date table, and ban per-site Excel OEE workbooks as the source of truth.
NCRs often sit at defect-event grain while scrap posts at order or component grain. We build a bridge on plant + order/serial + shift window, then publish scrap-$ from ERP and defect counts from QMS side-by-side. View Native Query must show the join predicates pushed to SQL; otherwise refresh timeouts mimic ‘Power BI is slow’.
Only for operational screens that need sub-15-minute freshness and can hit indexed tags. Board OEE packs usually stay Import on a 15–60 minute schedule. DirectQuery against unindexed historian pulls will spin visuals and overload the OPC/SQL path—capacity upgrades will not fix that.
RLS roles map Entra groups to PlantId (or LineId). We test with View as for a plant manager, a quality lead, and a corporate controller. Admins must not ‘validate’ security only while Workspace Admin—that hides blank/leak bugs.
Personal gateways on supervisors’ PCs, expired SQL credentials in Manage gateways, and M steps that break folding after expanding nested MES payloads. Standard-mode gateway clusters with vaulted recovery keys and early column projection keep Status = Completed inside the night window.
Related services
Power BI Consulting
Connect the systems you already use and leave with a clear place to report—before another orphan dashboard appears.
Power BI Dashboard Development
Build 1–2 live dashboard pages that pull from multiple sources—not a screenshot of Excel pasted into Power BI.
Reporting Automation
Retire the Monday email of pasted workbooks: scheduled refresh and one pack finance can open without stitching tabs.
Data Warehouse Design
Data Warehouse Design starts by killing contradictory extracts—then publishes measures that data leaders, IT managers, and executives can defend from multiple operational systems and historical data.
Related industries
Logistics
Power BI for Logistics: Dashboards, Analytics & Implementation: connect TMS, WMS, telematics, ERP, and customer-service CRM so leaders manage OTIF, freight spend, dwell, and lane cost.
Automotive
Service RO throughput and parts fill from the DMS—by rooftop: connect DMS, CRM, parts/service, warranty, and finance systems so leaders manage sales, service absorption, inventory, and warranty performance.
Engineering
Earned value and design workload from project ERP + time + PLM: connect project ERP, time, PLM/document control, resource planning, and CRM so leaders manage project delivery, utilization, risk, and design quality.
Book a call about manufacturing reporting
Talk through priorities, data sources, and a practical first Power BI release.