Free template
Hour-by-hour production board
An hour-by-hour production board shows the plan for each hour of the shift next to what was actually made, with running totals, and the reason whenever an hour falls short. It sits at the line so the team and the team leader see a problem within the hour, not at the end of the shift, and the reasons feed the daily meeting. The hourly plan comes from the takt time: the seconds available in that hour divided by the takt time. Page 1 of this template is the board for up to 10 hours: plan and plan total, actual and actual total, the difference, a reason code (machine, material, quality, people, changeover, other), what happened and the lost minutes, the action and who, and the team leader's initials. Page 2 adds up the shift by reason and has a week of results. The Excel version works out the hourly plan from the available minutes and the takt time, the running totals and the gaps, flags short hours with no reason, and adds up lost minutes by reason with a chart.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use an hour-by-hour production board
- On a line or cell with a takt time, where output per hour can be counted.
- When shift output misses plan and nobody is sure why.
- To feed the tier 1 meeting with the reasons behind the numbers.
- When starting daily management on a line for the first time.
How to fill it in
- 1
Set the plan before the shift
Write the takt time and, for each hour, the minutes available after breaks. Plan = available seconds ÷ takt, rounded down.
- 2
Write the actual every hour
At the end of each hour, the parts made and the running totals. The Excel version works out the totals and gaps.
- 3
Write the reason in that hour
For any hour short of plan, the reason code, what happened and the lost minutes, while people still remember.
- 4
Act during the shift
Agree what the team needs to recover the next hour, and who will fix the cause. Escalate what the team cannot fix.
- 5
Add up the reasons
At the end of the shift, count the hours short and the lost minutes by reason.
- 6
Take it to the daily meeting
The biggest reason goes to the tier meeting with an owner. Keep a week on one sheet to see the pattern.
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkAn example: one shift on an assembly cell with a 45-second takt (illustrative numbers).
- Hour 1: 50 minutes after a 10-minute start-up meeting, plan 66, actual 60. Reason: material, the first kit arrived late, 6 minutes lost.
- Hours 2 to 5 and hour 7: plan 80 each, actual 81, 79, 80, 80 and 80.
- Hour 6: plan 80, actual 64. Reason: machine, a torque tool faulted, 12 minutes lost.
- Shift of 7 hours: plan 546, actual 524, 96% of plan. Lost minutes: 6 material, 12 machine.
The torque tool fault went to maintenance at the daily meeting, and kitting agreed to deliver the first kit 15 minutes before the shift.
Common mistakes
Filling it in at the end of the shift
Numbers written up at the end are a report, not a board. Write them every hour.
No reason for a short hour
A red number without a reason cannot be acted on. Write the reason in the hour.
A plan that ignores breaks
A plan of 80 in an hour with a 10-minute break sets the team up to miss. Plan from the minutes really available.
Using it to blame
The board is for finding problems. If a short hour brings blame, the numbers stop being honest.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite the team types the day's numbers straight into a Lean Studio board during the huddle, and an issue Tier 1 can't solve is escalated to the Tier 2 board with its owner, due date and reminders.
In the lean glossary
FAQ
Hour-by-hour production board: common questions
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A shift handover sheet, a red tag log, a changeover checklist for one machine: if your team uses it on the floor, ask.