Hour-by-hour
Hour-by-Hour Board Template: What Goes in Each Column
The six columns of a working hour-by-hour board template, what each is for, why cumulative gap beats the hourly number, and how to set plan when takt moves.
Excel vs ShopBoard
Keep Excel for analysis. Run the shift off the board.
In a lot of plants, someone types the whiteboard into a spreadsheet after the shift. By then the lost hour is gone. ShopBoard puts plan vs actual, SQDC and open problems on a board the cell fills in during the shift.
Free forever: 1 department, 2 cells, 1 user · No card
Where the spreadsheet tracker breaks down
It gets typed up after the shift.
Someone copies the whiteboard into Excel at 3 PM. The hour lost at 9 AM is long gone.
The formulas break.
One paste over a formula and the colors are wrong. Nobody notices until month end.
Problems sit in a notes column.
"Waiting on maintenance." No owner, no date. Still there next Tuesday.
Nobody on the floor sees it.
The file lives on an office PC. Operators never see the running gap.
Excel and ShopBoard, row by row
| Excel | ShopBoard | |
|---|---|---|
| When numbers go in | After the shift, copied from the whiteboard | During the shift. On a PC at the cell or on the cell's TV. |
| Status colors | Conditional formatting you maintain | Fixed rules on target and actual. Nobody picks a color. |
| Scrap cost | A separate tab, added up at month end | Logged by part. The dollars feed that day's Cost square. |
| Problems | A notes column | An issue, then a 3C with a countermeasure and due date |
| Seen on the floor | By whoever opens the file | Wall view on a TV. Cards and issues refresh every minute. |
| Custom analysis | Anything: pivots, charts, your own columns | Fixed views: SQDC trends, scrap Pareto, monthly report |
| Getting data out | It's already a file | No CSV export. A3s export to PDF or PowerPoint. |
| Price | Probably already paid for | Free: 1 department, 2 cells, 1 user. Starter: $199 a month. |
| Learning it | Most people already know it | Sample board on first login. Your own cell in about 10 minutes. |
Flat prices, not per user. Starter covers 3 departments, 10 cells and 5 users.
What changes when the tracker becomes a board
Actuals go in at the cell
Anyone signed in taps an hour that has started and types the actual, at a desk or on the cell's TV. Under 90% of plan turns the hour red. Cumulative Δ keeps the running gap.
The colors work themselves out
Quality and Delivery are green at target or better. Yellow from 90% of target. Red below that. Safety is green only at zero incidents. Boards, walls and calendars all use the same rule, so they agree. No formula to protect.
Scrap fills in the Cost square
Log the part, quantity, unit cost and a reason. Pick the part from your parts list and the unit cost fills in. That day's Cost square for the cell totals itself.
Problems get a countermeasure and a date
Log an issue on the cell. A supervisor or manager turns it into a 3C with a countermeasure and a due date. Save it and the countermeasure lands on the Actions list, where it can be assigned. Overdue ones show in red.
Your spreadsheet history can come with you
Every plan includes CSV import, Free too. A manager loads the files in Settings: cells and targets, daily SQDC, hour-by-hour, issues, your team, department maps and a parts list.
Save the sheet as CSV with our column headers. The preview marks each row with a check or an error before anything is written, and bad rows are skipped. Reloading SQDC or hour-by-hour data updates rows instead of doubling them. Issues always import as new rows, so load them once.
Load Cells & Targets first, because SQDC, hour-by-hour and issue rows match on cell name. Plan limits on cells and users still apply. On Free the sample cell counts as one of your two. Scrap history and .xlsx files don't import.
Where Excel still wins
Here's what ShopBoard doesn't do.
- No custom reports, pivots or columns.
- No CSV or Excel export.
- Nothing pulls counts from your machines or ERP. Every number is typed in or imported.
- Delivery % and first-pass yield are typed in or imported, not calculated from counts.
- The color rules are fixed. Quality and Delivery go yellow under target and red under 90% of it. You can't change them.
- No downtime reasons on a missed hour, and no OEE.
Questions
Can I import my Excel tracker?
Yes, as CSV files that match our column headers. A manager loads them in Settings and checks the preview first. Scrap history and .xlsx files don't import.
Can I get my data back out into Excel?
Not from inside the app. There's no CSV export today. An A3 exports to PDF or PowerPoint, and the monthly report saves as PDF. Email us for a copy of your data.
Does the hour-by-hour fill in Delivery on the SQDC board?
No. The hour-by-hour colors each hour and keeps the running gap. Delivery % is typed in or imported. Cost is the one letter that fills itself in, from the scrap you log.
Who types the numbers in, if not the person with the spreadsheet?
Anyone signed in, at the cell. On Free that's one login, so keep the cell's screen signed in to it. Starter gives up to 5 people their own login. Professional gives everyone one.
Read more
- Hour-by-hour
Hour-by-Hour Production Tracking: Why Most Plants Quit After a Month
Hour-by-hour tracking is one of the highest-leverage habits in daily management, and one of the first to get abandoned. Here's why, and what makes it stick.
- Boards and metrics
Still Running Your SQDC Board on a Whiteboard? Here's What It's Actually Costing You
Most manufacturing floors still run daily management on a whiteboard. Here's what that costs in missed patterns, and what a digital SQDC board changes.
Run one cell on the board next to your spreadsheet.
Free covers 1 department, 2 cells and 1 user. Every core module is included. No card, no time limit.