I understand the issue; I used to do this stuff. Stacked columns, paretos,
or whatever show only a snapshot in time. but it seems to me that a better
visual is a time line showing all the data. In December, if you had a bunch
of things at 1.50, they wouldn't show up, because the fifth worst was 1.51.
However, in October, they all would be higher than the actual fifth worst of
1.09. Sure it's important to track the worst ones, but don't ignore the ones
whose rank drops slightly because of fluctuations in all of the data.
I did a little exercise to illustrate my point. I started with your data,
then expanded it so I had each defect type listed for each month, even if I
had no data. I added a column for "Realistic", by which I meant it showed
some kind of incidence for that item. I essentially took a random number
between zero and the lowest data I had (the fifth worst). I made a pivot
table to prep the data for plotting as time series, with incidence of each
defect vs. month. Then I made a regular chart from this data. It's a little
cluttered, so I highlighted the five worst from each month with a circle
around the points, and I think this made it fairly effective. It not only
shows which five were worst in a given month, but it shows the trend of each
defect, and where each crosses between "good" and "bad". It's only made up
data for those below the cutoff, so I won't draw any conclusions from the
data. But from the chart, I'll draw the conclusion that it's more useful
than gust a bad/good decision for each defect each month. The zipped
workbook is located he
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Zips/DefectTracking.zip
- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. -
http://PeltierTech.com
_______
"Paul Ilacqua" wrote in message
...
I may have confused the issue. What I want to see is of the distinct
issues, what was thier place in 10-07, 11-07, 12-07 etc. As in a stacked
bar with the bar containing different colors for each month. As you look at
the chart you can see that it was a problem in NOV-07, went away in 1-08
and was reduced in 2-08. Does that explain it better?
YY MM DEFECT c_1000
====================================
2007 10 Porosity-Rear Case 2.18
2007 10 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 1.71
2007 10 Porosity-Rear Retainer 1.40
2007 10 Assembly Issues-High Bolt - Case 1.32
2007 10 Assembly Issues-Tight Mainshaft Spline 1.09
2007 11 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 2.64
2007 11 Porosity-Rear Retainer 2.56
2007 11 Assembly Issues-Shafts Do Not Rotate 1.92
2007 11 Leak-No Leak Found 1.52
2007 11 Assembly Issues-Tight Mainshaft Spline 1.28
2007 11 Assembly Issues-Misbuild 1.28
2007 12 Damaged-Motor 3.78
2007 12 Assembly Issues-Motor - Damaged 2.92
2007 12 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 2.27
2007 12 Leak-No Leak Found 1.62
2007 12 Noise-Shift Motor Noisy During Shift 1.51
2008 1 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 2.70
2008 1 Damaged-Motor 1.96
2008 1 Assembly Issues-Shafts Do Not Rotate 1.59
2008 1 Hick-All Gears 1.35
2008 1 Leak-No Leak Found 1.10
"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
How many possible issues are there? If it's less than a dozen or so, I'd
make a line chart and show them all (not just the five worst, but perhaps
the ones which are ever fifth worst), with incidence as the Y values and
month & year as X. This way you can see the trends over time, and eyeball
the five worst each month.
- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______
"Paul Ilacqua" wrote in message
...
I have a data set in the form as below and need to show the top 5 issues
per month in a chart. I'm
baffled as to how and what type of chart to best show this information.
I appreciate any direction someone could send me.
YY is year , MM is month etc...
Thanks
Paul
YY MM DEFECT c_1000
2007 10 Porosity-Rear Case 2.18
2007 10 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 1.71
2007 10 Porosity-Rear Retainer 1.40
2007 10 Assembly Issues-High Bolt - Case 1.32
2007 10 Assembly Issues-Tight Mainshaft Spline 1.09
2007 11 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 2.64
2007 11 Porosity-Rear Retainer 2.56
2007 11 Assembly Issues-Shafts Do Not Rotate 1.92
2007 11 Leak-No Leak Found 1.52
2007 11 Assembly Issues-Tight Mainshaft Spline 1.28
2007 11 Assembly Issues-Misbuild 1.28
2007 12 Damaged-Motor 3.78
2007 12 Assembly Issues-Motor - Damaged 2.92
2007 12 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 2.27
2007 12 Leak-No Leak Found 1.62
2007 12 Noise-Shift Motor Noisy During Shift 1.51
2008 1 Seal Leaks-Rear O/P ID 2.70
2008 1 Damaged-Motor 1.96
2008 1 Assembly Issues-Shafts Do Not Rotate 1.59
2008 1 Hick-All Gears 1.35
2008 1 Leak-No Leak Found 1.10