Charts that compare data shown on report (one day) to Month to Date

[Ruairi]

I have a report i created for a client to display production(lumber) for a given date grouped by length, width, thickness, and grade (SQL Server 2000, Crystal 8.5 RDC, VB front end). This works fine. Now the client tells me they want a chart in the report that compares the percentage of total production that came from each length for last month day shift, last month night shift, month to date day shift, month to date night shift, previous day day shift, previous day night shift ,report date day shift and report date night shift (this is the only information that's currently in the report). They envison a stacked bar chart, with each bar representing one of the intervals described above and each color in the stack representing a length. Any ideas how i would go about this? Thanks in advance. Ruairi

Could your manufacturing facility benefit from real time process monitoring? Would you like your employees to be able to see up to the minute goal and actual production?
For innovative, low cost solutions check out my website.

http://www.plccontroltechnologies.com

 

[kenhamady]

Create Conditional totals for each period (LastFullMonth, MonthToDate, etc) and do one percent bar chart for each period. The "On Change Of" should be by Shift by Length (you will need an "advanced" chart not a "Group" chart.

The Summarized field should be the appropriate conditional formula field for that period.

Ken Hamady

http://www.kenhamady.com/

Crystal Reports Training/Consulting and a
Quick Reference Guide to VB/Crystal (including ADO)

 

[Ruairi]

Ken,
Thanks for your response. Part of the problem i was having was due to the fact that CR 8.5 has a bug when doing an advanced chart from running total values. I have posted a 'Helpful Hint' in this forum regarding that bug and the response i got from Crystal Descisions tech support. You might want to check it out if you have not encountered the bug yet, as there is a url to download a patch for the crw.exe file. Now that that part is fixed i got the report working with a few date's data. Currently the chart shows the percentages correctly for the dates in the report, but I accomplished this by creating a new top-level group that changes based on production date. Obviously this approach won't work to give me Month To Date, Previous month, Yesterday, and today bars. I am going to experiment more with ways to group the data. Are you suggesting a whole different chart for each period? Thanks again and sorry for my ignorance on this subject, I'm better with the integration aspects of CR than with report design. Ruairi

Could your manufacturing facility benefit from real time process monitoring? Would you like your employees to be able to see up to the minute goal and actual production?
For innovative, low cost solutions check out my website.

http://www.plccontroltechnologies.com

 

[kenhamady]

I didn't envision running totals. I would have used total of conditional formulas.

Yes, I would use a separate chart for Prior Month, and MTD, etc. In some instances you will need this, since you might have the same record in more than one category. Ken Hamady

http://www.kenhamady.com/

Crystal Reports Training/Consulting and a
Quick Reference Guide to VB/Crystal (including ADO)

 

[Ruairi]

ok, i think i see where youre going. Conditional formulas based on length, width etc.. in the detail section and total them in the report footer. So a formula called for example MonthToDateDay6Width that only takes the day shift values for any dates in the current month with a width of 6" and adds them. Then what would i group the chart on? Ruairi

Could your manufacturing facility benefit from real time process monitoring? Would you like your employees to be able to see up to the minute goal and actual production?
For innovative, low cost solutions check out my website.

http://www.plccontroltechnologies.com

 

[kenhamady]

Actually I would make length or width the "On Change Of". The condition just checks to see if the date is in that period (like MTD). Ken Hamady

http://www.kenhamady.com/

Crystal Reports Training/Consulting and a
Quick Reference Guide to VB/Crystal (including ADO)