The Night Panel
Posted By DashboardWire ~ 11th March 2010
In my prior post, I discussed the fact that my car has a tach but an automatic transmission and the relative uselessness of the tach. But my car, a Saab, does have a redeeming feature that is a GREAT dashboard example! The Night Panel button. This does not exist on any other car manufactured and is derived from the history of Saab making aircraft.
The Night Panel
While driving in the dark, all the instruments glow brightly unless you turn down the dash lights. But that sometimes dims the information you need to see so it is somewhat of an all or nothing proposition. Enter Saab with the Night Panel button. When you push the night panel button all the dash and control lights are dimmed enough so you can see where they are and what they are, or they are turned off completely. What you end up with is just the speedometer lit and nothing else. That pesky tach is turned off, the gas gauge, turbo boost gauge, and the temperature gauge. The info display showing date, time, radio controls, heater controls are all turned off completely. Now you see just what you NEED to see RIGHT NOW. Not the nice to know information, just the critical needed information. So the speedometer is lit up, but only partially. What, partially? It only lights to about 90 mph. Probably not going to be going over 90 in the dark so it is turned off. However, if you go over about 83 mph, then the rest of the speedometer lights up so you see it.
What Happens Next Will Amaze You!
So what happens next? What if I need to see something else? Good question. If you are getting low on fuel, then the fuel light comes on just below a quarter tank. Now you are informed about something that you need to know when you need to know it. You didn’t care before, but now you do and the dash lets you know right away. It gives you adequate time to find more fuel BEFORE the car runs out of gas. How about all the other controls, what happens with them? If you change the radio station, the controls light up for several seconds to show the new selection and then dim again. Same with the heater controls. So you make an adjustment and it shows your actions. If all systems are still good within parameters, then the lights dim again. Now that is a great example of a dashboard! Brilliantly simple.
How Can I Apply It To My Dashboards?
Keep it simple (have we heard that before somewhere?). Put a review date on your entire dashboard AND all the individual components. You might need to track something for a few months then the conditions change so you don’t need to follow it anymore. Let it go. Maybe even document somewhere the dashboard layouts and why they exist. Track changes and document why it changed. Let new hires look at the dashboard and change document for insight into how your company lives and breathes. Having worked my way up thru the various levels of accounting and finance at different companies, it is still amazing to see what reports are still being generated with no real reason for their existence anymore. It was relevant, but not anymore. Let it go. Be disciplined in your review of the dashboard. It forces you to do a review of what is really important NOW in your company.
Paul
Let it go is on point!
Will there ever be a standard in managing information…