The problem
Production tracking lived in static Excel spreadsheets on a shared NAS drive. Workers and supervisors had no easy way to check status at a glance—they'd have to manually open the spreadsheet, find the right tab, and interpret raw numbers. There was no visual layer to communicate whether targets were being met, no week-aware context, and no way to display the information on a shop floor screen.
When production is behind target, every hour matters. The lack of a visible, always-on status board meant issues could go unnoticed until end-of-day reviews. A passive dashboard removes that blind spot—it surfaces the numbers continuously so teams can react faster.
What I built
A self-contained web application that reads production data directly from existing Excel spreadsheets and presents it as a live, browser-based dashboard. No workflow changes required—the spreadsheet stays the same, the dashboard just reads from it.
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Live data display
Automatically reads the correct Excel sheet based on the current date, so the right data is always shown without manual intervention.
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Weekly & monthly views
Displays both monthly production overview (Target / Made / Balance) and current-week breakdown, with flexible modes for different contexts.
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Color-coded status
Cells are color-coded to immediately show whether production is ahead, on track, or behind—no need to parse raw numbers to understand status.
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Auto-refresh & auto-scroll
The dashboard polls for updates on a configurable interval and scrolls through long product lists, making it suitable for mounted screens on the shop floor.
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Multi-theme support
Seven themes available (light, dark, anti-glare, high-contrast, and more) to suit different screen types and lighting environments.
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Keyboard shortcuts
Rapid controls for toggling displays, switching themes, and changing modes—designed for quick adjustments without a mouse.
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Network accessible
Once the host is running the app, any device on the local network can view the dashboard by entering the host's IP address. No installation required on viewer devices.
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Shared settings
Settings stored in a JSONC file on the NAS with local fallback. Configuration changes apply across all active instances simultaneously.
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Highlighted rows
Users can click rows on one device and see them highlighted on another. Each connected device is a separate user with local browser storage.
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Weather widget
Shows current temperature and conditions—useful context for a screen running all day on the shop floor.
Screens
A view from the deployed dashboard. Click the image to expand.
Tech stack
Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, vanilla JavaScript (no framework), Google Fonts. Responsive, component-based layout built from scratch with dynamic DOM rendering.
Backend: Python 3, Flask, Flask-SocketIO, openpyxl (Excel parsing), commentjson (JSONC settings), requests (weather API), standard library utilities.
Data: Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) as the primary source, JSONC configuration file for settings, NAS (Z: drive) with local folder fallback, weather API integration.
Deployment: Windows machine connected to NAS, virtual environment for isolation, one-click startup launcher.
Outcome
Production status is now visible passively and continuously—no one needs to open a spreadsheet to check where the team stands. The time to awareness for production gaps dropped from end-of-day reviews to real-time visibility. Color coding removes ambiguity. A glance at the screen tells the story.
The project evolved through six major iterations (V1–V6) and a polished release series (ProdDash V1.6.x), each adding features and refining the UX based on real usage feedback. V1 started as a proof-of-concept reading CSV files with a minimal UI. Each version added: Excel support, themes, weather, keyboard shortcuts, SocketIO, color coding, shared settings, and network accessibility.
The current release (ProdDash V1.6.5) is in active production use at the facility and accessible to any device on the local network, meaning staff can check production status from their own machines without software installation.