Challenge

The following charts show load histograms of the cash desks of a retail firm. Both relevant parameters, the start value and the bandwidth, have a major influence on the resulting chart and its usability.

Fig. 1 uses an arbitrary bandwidth of t = 2h. It is suitable to visualize the increase of the load during the day and to show the peaks at lunch hour and at closing time.

With a different bandwidth of t = 6min (Fig. 2), this information is overlayed by a chaos of different bars and peaks. However, it shows the enormous peak right before closing time. This important detail could not be identified in the previous chart.

This example shows the importance of choosing the histogram parameters correctly given their large influence. One can only guess what other information would be visible if the correct bandwidth was chosen. In other words, a histogram shows only the facts that fit the selected parameters. It is limited to views in which relevant information is assumed.

Datenmeer Solution

The Datenmeer technology Cepel analyzes the data automatically. It does not rely on manual parameters which might influence the results in such an unpredictable way.

Based on the actual data set it calculates the most mathematically precise and most plausible distribution of the load during the day (Fig. 3).

The result allows qualified conclusions regarding the check-out load, both the overall trend during the day as well as short phenomena like the peak at the very end of the day.

Your Benefit

Cepel is very easy to use because it does not depend on manually set parameters. Furthermore it provides more valuable and more precise results than alternative solutions.