How is the hourly target worked out?

Available minutes in the hour times 60, divided by the product's takt time in seconds, rounded down to whole units. Takt is available time divided by customer demand: a 480-minute shift with 45 minutes of breaks and 950 units of demand gives 27.47 seconds, the Takt Time calculator's example, so a full 60-minute hour has a target of 131 units and a 50-minute hour 109.

Why use takt time rather than the machine's rated speed?

Takt is the pace customer demand requires, so an hour that makes its takt number keeps the shift on course to ship what was ordered. A rated speed says what the line could make, which suits efficiency and OEE; for that view use the Shift Production Report or the OEE Tracker template.

What do I put in available minutes?

The minutes the line was planned to run in that hour: 60, less any break, lunch, meeting or planned clean-down that falls inside it. Unplanned stops stay in, because they are what the board is meant to show. The Hour slots list on Setup holds the usual minutes for each hour of your shift as a guide.

Why does the dashboard not average the hourly percentages?

Because a 30-minute lunch hour would then count as much as a full hour. The workbook adds units made and target units over the rows in view and divides the sums. An hour at 100 percent of a 90-unit target and a half hour at 50 percent of a 45-unit target give 83.3 percent attainment, not 75 percent.

Can a line run two products in one hour?

Split the hour into two rows, each with its own product and minutes. The Check column will flag the second row as a duplicate hour, which in that case you can leave as intended; the targets and running totals still add up correctly.

Does the workbook use macros?

No. It is a plain .xlsx with ordinary formulas, tables, dropdowns and native charts, so it opens without enabling macros. The Verify sheet re-checks the formulas against fixed test cases and shows Self-check: PASS.

Production and Throughput

Hour-by-Hour Production Board Excel Template

Log each line's output every hour against a target set by takt time, and see the running plan vs actual for the shift, the hours that miss, and the reasons that cost the most units.

Free, and a plain .xlsx with no macros to enable. A CSV with live formulas and a printed how-to guide come with it.

Overview

This hour-by-hour production board is the spreadsheet form of the board many lines keep beside the cell, also called a production analysis board or takt board. Each line's hour is one row: the product, the minutes the line was planned to run, the good units it made, and, when it fell short, the reason and the countermeasure. It ships with ten working days of example data for a fictional two-cell pump assembly plant on two shifts, so the dashboard is populated the moment you open it.

The hourly target comes from takt time, not from a rate someone typed: available minutes times 60, divided by the product's takt in seconds, rounded down to whole units. A full hour at a 40-second takt is 90 units; a 30-minute lunch hour is 45. Running totals add the targets and the units made from hour 1 of the same date, shift and line, so the board shows at every hour how far the shift is ahead or behind. The Daily Board turns one shift into the familiar printed board, with clock times from the shift start on Setup. Every summary adds units first and divides last, so a short hour weighs less than a full one.

In the example, the first hour of every shift runs below takt for start-up, the hour after lunch dips a little, and cell A2 loses most of an hour to material shortages about once a day; the hour chart and the Pareto make both patterns plain. The download is a plain .xlsx with no macros. A CSV with live formulas is also included for other tools; the dashboard, charts, dropdowns and self-check are in the .xlsx.

What this template includes

Hourly Board table, one row per line per hour: date, shift, line, hour of the shift, product, minutes available, good units made, miss reason and countermeasure
Hourly target from the product's takt time on Setup (available minutes x 60 / takt, rounded down), with gap, units short, attainment and a status word against your hourly target
Running totals for the shift: cumulative target, cumulative actual and how far ahead or behind the line is at the end of each hour
Printable Daily Board: pick a date, shift and line and print the hour-by-hour board for the line, with clock times, two charts and team leader and supervisor sign-off; a date with no rows prints a blank board to fill in by hand
Check column that names problems in words: a short hour with no reason, a product missing from Setup, more than 60 minutes in an hour, a duplicate hour row, output far above takt pace
Dashboard with line and date filters, eight KPI tiles including the weakest hour of the shift and the biggest miss reason
Four native charts: attainment by hour of the shift, attainment by day, a Pareto of units short by miss reason, and target vs actual by line
By-hour, daily and by-line summary tables that add units first and divide last
Method sheet with every formula, and a Verify sheet that re-checks the formulas against an independent reference and the Takt Time calculator (Self-check: PASS)

Suggested use case

Use it in place of the whiteboard beside the line: the team leader fills one row per hour, the board shows straight away when the shift falls behind takt, and the daily review reads which hours and which reasons lost the most units.

How to use it

On Setup, enter your plant name and hourly attainment target, then replace the example lines, shifts, hour slots, products with their takt times, and miss reasons.
Each hour, add one row per line with the hour of the shift, the product, the minutes available after breaks and the good units made.
When an hour misses its target, pick the miss reason and write the countermeasure; the Check column asks for it.
To hang the board by the line or review a shift at handover, open Daily Board, pick the date, shift and line, and print it on one landscape page.
Open the Dashboard: set From and To to one day for that day's board, or filter by line to see which hour of the shift and which reason lose the most units.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the hourly target worked out?: Available minutes in the hour times 60, divided by the product's takt time in seconds, rounded down to whole units. Takt is available time divided by customer demand: a 480-minute shift with 45 minutes of breaks and 950 units of demand gives 27.47 seconds, the Takt Time calculator's example, so a full 60-minute hour has a target of 131 units and a 50-minute hour 109.
Why use takt time rather than the machine's rated speed?: Takt is the pace customer demand requires, so an hour that makes its takt number keeps the shift on course to ship what was ordered. A rated speed says what the line could make, which suits efficiency and OEE; for that view use the Shift Production Report or the OEE Tracker template.
What do I put in available minutes?: The minutes the line was planned to run in that hour: 60, less any break, lunch, meeting or planned clean-down that falls inside it. Unplanned stops stay in, because they are what the board is meant to show. The Hour slots list on Setup holds the usual minutes for each hour of your shift as a guide.
Why does the dashboard not average the hourly percentages?: Because a 30-minute lunch hour would then count as much as a full hour. The workbook adds units made and target units over the rows in view and divides the sums. An hour at 100 percent of a 90-unit target and a half hour at 50 percent of a 45-unit target give 83.3 percent attainment, not 75 percent.
Can a line run two products in one hour?: Split the hour into two rows, each with its own product and minutes. The Check column will flag the second row as a duplicate hour, which in that case you can leave as intended; the targets and running totals still add up correctly.
Does the workbook use macros?: No. It is a plain .xlsx with ordinary formulas, tables, dropdowns and native charts, so it opens without enabling macros. The Verify sheet re-checks the formulas against fixed test cases and shows Self-check: PASS.