This article here is more of a show and tell than a how to lesson. I wanted to demonstrate a really cool product that I have been demoing for work called QLIK Sense. I work for a Clinical Engineering Department at a multi-site hospital system. While the main thrust of my job is data related, the department as a whole is responsible for the maintenance of medical equipment, everything from IV pumps to MRI machines. Anyone who has ever worked into a busy maintenance/service environment knows how difficult it can be to optimize labor so that proper resources are allocated to the right jobs.
One great tool that can help is an operations dashboard. This gives everyone in the shop a single point of reference for what is happening at any given time. Using QLIK Sense, I was able quickly to connect my work order database and within less than an hour, I had the following dashboard created.
Closer Look at the Elements
Across the top I have, Scheduled Inspections (Total vs Still Open), Repairs Calls Opened Today, Repair Calls Closed Today, and Open High Risk Equipment Repair Calls
Next I have a trend line showing work orders created vs closed over time. Next to that, I have a pie chart showing what departments the majority of my repair calls are originating from.
On the bottom, I have a gauge that shows the number of IV Pumps in the shop for repair vs the total number of pumps in Inventory. The goal is to keep that number below 20%. So as the needle starts edging towards red, we know to move resources onto pumps.
Finally, I have open repair work orders by employee.
Cool Features
QLIK Sense provides more than just a dashboard. It is totally interactive. You can use basic filters like the one below:
Or you can simple click on any element with the dashboard to filter the data.
Notice that after selecting Monitor Technicians from the Department Pie Chart, my Repair Work Orders by Employee chart has automatically filtered down to only the employees with work orders open in that department.
With the trend line graph, I can use the “lasso” to select a range I want to filter by.
Of course you can simply “fly over” element in the dashboard to get information as well.
Now I have an effective BI tool
I know a lot of people out there are still living in the world of static reporting. Getting near real time information up in front of the decision makers can allow them to make near real time decisions. The days of basing decisions off of a static report run daily or even (gasp.. ) weekly are over. We need to start deploying tools like this dashboard so we can manage less by what we think is happening and more by what we know is happening.