Quality and continuous improvement

Real-time quality dashboard

By Claudia · · 6 min read

Measure quality in real timeKPIs, waste, and recurrences in a dashboard that updates itself.

View the dashboard
Screens with charts and indicators from a real-time quality dashboard

Real-time quality dashboard: make decisions before the problem escalates

In the food industry, information that arrives late is useless. A quality dashboard in real time changes the rules of the game: instead of discovering a deviation once the batch has already left the plant, you see it the moment it happens and can act right away. If you still manage your indicators in spreadsheets or through weekly reports, this article is for you.

What a quality dashboard should show

Un buen dashboard de calidad no es una pantalla llena de números. Es una herramienta de toma de decisiones. Para que cumpla esa función, debe mostrar exactamente lo que necesita ver un responsable de calidad de un vistazo, sin tener que cruzar datos de diferentes fuentes.

These are the essential elements that can't be missing:

  • Status of critical control points (CCPs): if any parameter has gone out of limit, it should be the first thing you see, with an immediate visual alert.
  • Inspection and audit results: compliance percentage, open incidents and their age.
  • Non-conformity record: how many there are, which area they're concentrated in, and their resolution status.
  • Batch traceability: the ability to know, in seconds, where each batch is and which checks it has passed.
  • Hygiene and cleaning indicators: checks completed versus planned, microbiological test results.
  • Customer complaints: trends over time and categorization by defect type.

The key is that all this data is centralized and updated in real time, not manually exported every Monday morning.

Indicators that really move the needle

One of the most common mistakes when designing a quality dashboard is including too many indicators. More isn't always better. The real-time quality KPIs that truly add value are the ones directly linked to food safety risks or customer satisfaction.

Before choosing your indicators, it's worth remembering that the European legal framework requires operators to establish, implement and maintain procedures based on hazard analysis principles, as set out in the Regulation (EC) 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (Regulation [EC] 852/2004, 2004). This means indicators aren't optional: they're the evidence that your system works.

With that in mind, here are the real-time quality KPIs with the biggest impact on operations:

  • Non-conformity rate by line or process: tells you objectively where failures are concentrated.
  • Average incident closure time: a high time indicates the management system isn't agile.
  • Percentage of checks completed versus planned: measures the teams' operational discipline.
  • Complaint rate per 100,000 units produced: is the indicator that most directly connects internal quality with customer experience.
  • Trends in analytical results: microbiological or physicochemical trends that can anticipate problems before they turn into alerts.
  • Effectiveness of corrective actions: percentage of corrective actions that resolve the problem without recurrence.

An effective dashboard doesn't just show the point-in-time figure, it puts it in context: compared with the previous period, with the set target and with the trend of the last few weeks.

From record to KPI without spreadsheets

The biggest bottleneck in most food and beverage companies isn't a lack of data, it's the difficulty of turning it into useful information. The usual cycle goes like this: the operator records on paper or in an Excel sheet, someone transcribes it into another document, the quality manager consolidates and calculates it manually, and the report arrives two days after the problem happened.

This model has three structural problems: it introduces errors at every handoff, it eats up hours that could be spent analyzing instead of copying, and it always produces information about the past.

Measure quality in real timeKPIs, waste, and recurrences in a dashboard that updates itself.

View the dashboard

The alternative is digitizing recording at the source. When the data is entered directly into the system —from a tablet on the line, from a connected sensor or from an integrated measuring device— the KPI is calculated automatically and the dashboard updates instantly. There are no intermediaries, no waiting and no transcription errors.

What's more, a digital system lets you set up automatic alerts: if a temperature exceeds the critical limit, the owner gets a real-time notification, not when they do their data review round. This is especially relevant in the context of the general European food law (Regulation [EC] 178/2002, 2002), which establishes operators' obligation to withdraw from the market any food that isn't safe and to notify the competent authorities. Detecting earlier means reacting earlier and, in the best case, keeping the problem from reaching the consumer.

How to set up automatic dashboards in Solved

Solved is designed specifically so that quality managers in the food and beverage industry have their dashboard up and running from day one, without needing to code or depend on the IT department.

The process for setting up a quality dashboard in Solved follows three very simple steps:

  1. Digitize your check forms: Solved includes a library of standard forms adapted to the sector —CCP checks, cleaning verifications, product inspections, internal audits— that you can customize to fit your process. Operators fill them in from any device, with no paper.
  2. Define your indicators: in the settings panel you select which metrics you want to monitor, and set the targets and alert thresholds. Solved automatically calculates the KPIs from the records entered, with no manual formulas.
  3. Activa la automatización de reportes de calidad: schedule the automatic generation of daily, weekly or monthly reports that are sent directly to the people who need them. No manual exports, no emails with Excel attachments.

The result is a dashboard that updates in real time every time someone enters a data point, with clear status traffic lights, trend charts and configurable alerts. Quality managers can see at a glance whether the day's operations are within range or whether something needs immediate attention.

What's more, Solved centralizes all the documentation associated with it: if a KPI is red, you can go straight to the record that generated it, the check point's history and the open corrective actions. Everything connected, everything traceable.

If you want to stop managing quality by looking in the rearview mirror and start making decisions with real-time information, Solved's real-time quality dashboard is the place to start. Book a demo and see how it works applied to your real process.

References

Measure quality in real timeKPIs, waste, and recurrences in a dashboard that updates itself.

View the dashboard