Pareto analysis in Tableau - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Pareto analysis

Business Question

Which products contribute the most to total sales, and how can we identify the top 20% of products that generate about 80% of sales?

Sample Data

Product	Sales
Product A	5000
Product B	3000
Product C	2000
Product D	1500
Product E	1000
Product F	800
Product G	700
Product H	500

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: SUM([Sales])
  Result: 14500
• Bar Chart: Sales by Product
  Shows each product's sales in descending order.
• Calculated Field: Running Total Sales
  Formula: RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales]))
  Calculates cumulative sales as products are ordered by sales descending.
• Calculated Field: Cumulative Percentage
  Formula: RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales])) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales]))
  Shows cumulative sales as a percentage of total sales.
• Line Chart: Cumulative Percentage Line
  Overlaid on bar chart to visualize Pareto curve.
• Reference Line: 80% Sales Threshold
  Placed at 0.8 on cumulative percentage axis to identify top contributors.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+-------------------------+
|      Total Sales      |   Sales by Product Bar   |
|       (KPI Card)      |      Chart (Descending)  |
+----------------------+-------------------------+
|                      Cumulative Percentage Line Chart (Pareto Curve)           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                      Reference Line at 80% Sales Threshold                   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    

Interactivity

Filters on product categories or regions can update all components simultaneously. Selecting a product highlights its sales and cumulative contribution on the bar and line charts. The KPI card updates to show total sales for the filtered data.

Self Check

If you add a filter to show only products with sales above 1000, which components update?

• The Total Sales KPI Card updates to sum only filtered products.
• The Sales by Product Bar Chart shows only products with sales above 1000.
• The Cumulative Percentage Line Chart recalculates cumulative percentages based on filtered data.
• The Reference Line remains at 80% but relative to the filtered total sales.

Key Result

Dashboard shows product sales ranked with cumulative sales percentage to identify top 20% products contributing to 80% of sales.