The simple process behavior chart can be used in many different ways. Since report card data are common in all types of businesses, the report card chart is often the first chart that people create. Some of the pros and cons of report card charts are covered here.

Report card data are data that have been created to track various aspects of a business or operation. They may be measures of activity (commonly expressed in dollars or volumes). Or they may be measures of satisfaction, of quality, of inactivity (such as wait times), or measures of performance compared to a standard or budget. In each case they attempt to summarize some aspect of an operation over the past time period in a single number. Thus, the essence of every report card number is to aggregate and summarize so as to provide the big picture.

As an example of a report card chart I will use an example from my mentor, Professor David S. Chambers, who was working with a medium-sized hosiery mill. The mill employed about 1,500 workers and it had a reputation as a quality mill based on careful 100-percent inspection that graded the output as First, Irregulars, Seconds, and Rags.

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