How to create a Timeline Pareto Chart in Tableau?

In any business, especially in the sales departments, it is important to periodically follow the numbers and the sales results to make comparisons with the past events and also to be able to make predictions for the future. All these enable specialists to build more realistic strategies, and set more powerful objectives for the following periods and projects.

Tableau Software can help us materialize any data visualisation initiatives we have in a very interactive and organized manner. Data analysis can become a very efficient and fun process, once we have built all the graphics and diagrams our businesses needs.

Today we are launching a new challenge, more precisely, to build a Timeline Pareto Chart considering, for example, timeline parameters, the sum of sales, days from the first order, region, country, etc. Before we show exactly the steps and „how to’s” in our newest video, let’s find out some very interesting facts about this name: Pareto.

The Pareto Chart has been named after the Italian engineer and economist Vilfredo Pareto, who formulated a popular hypothesis that became with time a Principle. This principle reveals that when we are talking about the causes and effects of a phenomenon, 80% and 20% ratios have a very interesting connection. 

For example, Pareto discovered that 80% of the lands belonged to 20% of people or that 20% of the pea pods from his garden contained 80% of the peas. Therefore, generalizing, he concluded that 80% of the consequences of an action or fact came from 20% of the causes.

Imagine this principle being applied in business: 80% of profits are realized by 20% of the clients, products or services. Imagine that you could visualize these numbers in Tableau, adapted to your company’s sales, shipping, countries or regions. Also, you could see the connection between the total sales, top products and a specific timeline.

Other examples:

80% of the errors are caused by 20% of the bugs.

80% of the accidents happen due to 20% of possible dangers.

Solving 20% of the bugs means solving 80% of your client’s problems… and so forth. 😊

Why and when build and use a Timeline Pareto Chart?

→ When you want a process, coding and documentation optimization.

→ When you are looking for a pattern in your data to make predictions, find solutions or understand how your resources have been used.

Essential is that your data is organized by category and ranking. I invite you now to watch the practical video and follow the needed steps to create a Pareto taking into consideration also time parameters.

Step 1: Connect to data

→ În Tableau Desktop,  connect to Tableau: Sample Superstore

Step 2: Create View

→ Create a parameter : Choose a Dimension

Data type: String

List of values – Display As

Region

State

Category

Sub-Category

Segment

Ship Mode

→ Create a calculate field : Dimension Select

CASE [Choose a Dimension]

WHEN ‘Region’ THEN [Region]

WHEN ‘State’ THEN [State]

WHEN ‘Category’ THEN [Category]

WHEN ‘Sub-Category’ THEN [Sub-Category]

WHEN ‘Segment’ THEN [Segment]

WHEN ‘Ship Mode’ THEN [Ship Mode]

END

→ Create a calculate field: First order date

{FIXED [Dimension Select]: min([Order Date])}

→ Create a calculate field: Days since order

DATEDIFF(‘day’,[First order date],[Order Date])

→ From Marks select Line

→ Drag Dimension Select on Detail

→ Drag DAY(Order Date) on Path

→ Drag SUM(Sales) on Rows

→ Drag SUM(Days since order) on Columns

→ From SUM(Sales) select Table Calculation, Running Total, select Specific Dimension – Day of Order Date. select ‘Add secondary calculation’ – Percent of Total, select Specific Dimension – Day of Order Date

→ From SUM(Days since order), select Table Calculation, Running Total, select Specific Dimension – Day of Order Date. select ‘Add secondary calculation’ – Percent of Total, select Specific Dimension – Day of Order Date

By Eduard Arhire

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