04 Shopfloor Monitoring

Build monitoring dashboards for the production floor.

In this tutorial you build a dashboard for shopfloor screens that shows multiple machines side by side with real-time data:

What you will learn

• Design multi-machine layouts for large screens

• Optimize panels for viewing from a distance

• Configure auto-refresh and kiosk mode

Prerequisites

• Part 2 (visualization types) completed

• Basic knowledge of panel configuration

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Multi-machine layout

Grafana uses a grid with 24 units. For a shopfloor layout with 3 machines, each column gets 8 units:

1. Create all panels for one machine (header, stat, status, trend)

2. Duplicate the panels and adjust the data source

3. Position them in the next column

Machines	Width per column
2	12 units
3	8 units
4	6 units

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Large stat panels

For shopfloor displays, stat panels must be readable from 3 to 10 meters away:

Setting	Value
Color mode	Value
Graph mode	None
Text mode	Value
Minimum height	4-5 grid units

Configure thresholds for instant status recognition (e.g. throughput: >= 90 green, >= 70 yellow, < 70 red).

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Status indicator

Create running/stopped indicators as a stat panel with value mappings:

Value	Display	Color
0 / stopped	STOPPED	Red
1 / running	RUNNING	Green

Set Color mode to Background so the entire panel takes on the status color.

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Time series with thresholds

Trend lines help identify patterns. Optimize for shopfloor viewing:

Setting	Value
Line width	2-3
Fill opacity	10-20
Point size	Hidden
Legend	Hidden
Show thresholds	As filled regions

Set fixed min/max values on all axes so that machine charts are comparable.

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Kiosk mode

Kiosk mode hides the entire Grafana UI for a clean display. Append ?kiosk to the dashboard URL:

https://grafana.example.com/d/abc123/shopfloor?orgId=1&refresh=30s&kiosk

URL parameter	Effect
?kiosk	Hide entire UI
?kiosk=tv	Hide UI, cycle through rows
?kiosk&autofitpanels	Automatically fit panels to the screen

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Tips

• Auto-refresh: For shopfloor displays, set a refresh interval of 30s (time picker > refresh dropdown, or dashboard settings > Auto refresh).

• Transparent panels: Enable Transparent background in the panel options for a cleaner look on dark backgrounds.

• Color consistency: Assign each machine a consistent color (e.g. Kiefel: green #73BF69, Macchi: blue #5794F2). Use bold colors instead of pastels.

• Time zone: Set the dashboard time zone to Browser so that the local factory time is displayed.