More focused operations with a modern KPI dashboard system
Fokker Services Group
Isah Power BI dashboard
We bring production orders, hours and inventory from Isah together with actual costing in a single Power BI model. For Fokker Services Group, we built a KPI dashboard system.
Spotting bottlenecks sooner was the goal of the BACE-next KPI dashboard for Fokker Services Group
Fokker Services wanted to display all key KPIs in a single central web application, providing insights at every level of the organisation and bringing bottlenecks to light sooner. We built the dashboard using Python and Dash.
What does a production order really cost, and why do we only find out after delivery?
Isah holds the cost estimate, logged hours, materials used and delivery date. To see them side by side for each order, you have to export lists. A Power BI model brings them together by order and by client, including orders in progress.
An Isah dashboard tracks every production order from estimate to delivery
Estimates versus actuals
Compare budgeted hours and materials with what has been recorded for each production order, so you can spot deviations while the order is still in progress.
Delivery reliability by customer
Compare promised delivery dates with actual delivery dates by customer, product group and department, using a consistent definition of on-time delivery.
Workload by department
See outstanding operations and planned hours for each work centre alongside available capacity, so the planner can identify bottlenecks.
KPIs at every level
Management, production managers and production planners work from the same model, as the KPI dashboard for Fokker Services Group demonstrated by providing insights at every level.
Order margin and delivery reliability are given clear definitions before the model is built
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Installation and questions
On-premises or Isah in the cloud, which modules are used, which reports currently come from Excel and who uses them.
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Data access and first model
Choose the approach with your Isah partner, then work through one question and check it against the reports in Isah.
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Expansion and management
Other departments and sites are added to the same model. Data refreshes, access rights and management are assigned a designated owner.
Do the KPIs in Isah give you enough visibility, or is Power BI worth adding?
A good fit if
You want to see Isah figures alongside other sources, such as a CRM, machine data or a second site, and Isah’s management reports do not bring them together.
Not a good fit if
The KPIs and planning boards in Isah already answer your questions. In that case, a second reporting layer would take more work to maintain than it is worth.
What determines the scope
Whether Isah runs on-premises or in the cloud, how many departments, sites and custom fields are included, how up to date the figures need to be, and which sources you add alongside Isah.
Can Power BI access our Isah data?
That depends on your installation and your agreements with Isah or your Isah partner. We agree the approach with them and only read the data; we do not write anything back.
An export, read-only access to the database or a data warehouse to support your Isah reporting?
A regular export
Choose this if a few reports a week are enough and Isah can provide them as files. It’s quick to set up, but every new question requires a new export.
Read-only access
Choose this if Isah runs on your own server and your partner allows a read-only account or database views. We recommend a single access route for all reports, with consistent definitions.
A data warehouse
Choose this if Isah is one of several data sources or you want to retain historical data independently of Isah. See how to build a data warehouse.
We regularly build production and KPI dashboards for manufacturers and their planners
Data Science Lab has worked with data and AI since 2016 and is a Microsoft Partner for Fabric. We built a KPI dashboard system for Fokker Services Group and Power BI dashboards for Ammega’s management, planning and finance teams.
We’ll start by discussing how you calculate the actual costs of a production order
Stef Stoelwinder
Business DevelopmentStef is your first point of contact. In our first conversation, we’ll discuss your Isah setup, how you calculate actual costs and the reports you currently create in Excel.
E-mail info@datasciencelab.nl
Phone +31 (0)20 3636 724
Which production figures from Isah would you like to see by order and by customer?
Tell us how Isah works in your organisation, which modules you use and which reports you’re missing. We’ll reply by email or suggest an initial meeting.
Message sent
Thanks for your message. We’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
Frequently asked questions
Isah does not publish public documentation for a reporting API, so the approach depends on your installation. If Isah runs on your own server, a read-only account for the database or its views may be an option, if your partner allows it. If Isah runs in the cloud, we ask Isah what options are available.
We load the data and build the model on top of it.
To read how we build a dashboard around the decision it needs to support, see Power BI dashboards.
Yes. Only the way we load the data differs. On its website, Isah describes the move from on-premise to SaaS and a phased update to Isah10, with departments moving over one after another.
If you are in the middle of that transition, we keep data retrieval separate from the model. The definitions and reports stay in place; only the source changes.
For each production order, we compare budgeted hours and materials with booked hours and actual consumption. We calculate the variance by operation, department and client. Isah itself identifies accurate actual-cost calculations and visibility into failure costs as common challenges in manufacturing.
We agree in advance with the production planning and finance teams which entries to include.
As the proportion of order lines delivered on or before the promised date. Whether you use the original promised date or the most recently revised one makes a substantial difference. We make that choice together and record it in the model.
You can then see on-time delivery by client, product group and department, and compare it with the backlog by week or month.
Usually, they track progress and margin by production order, hours by department against the plan, stock against material requirements, on-time delivery by client, and the order book for the coming period.
For revenue, margin, cash flow, and budget versus actuals at management level, see the financial dashboard in Power BI.
The account we use to read Isah has read-only access to the data we need. In Power BI, row-level security limits what each person can see: for example, a department manager sees only their own department, or a branch sees only its own orders.
For how we set up workspaces, apps and refreshes, see Power BI consultant.
Yes. How we load the data varies by system, but the model and definitions do not. For project-based manufacturers using Ridder iQ, see the Ridder iQ Power BI dashboard.
To read what else we do for manufacturers, from planning to predictive maintenance, see manufacturing.
If the KPIs, planning boards and management reports in Isah already answer your questions. Or if hours and materials are not consistently booked against production orders: in that case, start with data quality, not Power BI.
If a weekly export is enough, we will tell you that too.