May - Library

For example, one of the most celebrated uses of this technology
is in the investment sphere (see smart m o n e y.com maps). The market
universe is the outer dimension of the honeycomb (blue level), as
shown in Exhibit 1. The highest level inner dimension is the industry
dimension (red level), while the smallest squares within the industry
are the individual companies (green level). In addition, attributes at
any level within the honeycomb can be expressed by size, color and
location of the honeycomb cells. In the investment example, location
re p resents an attribute such as market capitalization. For example,
telecommunications has the highest market capitalization of all
industries, which is indicated by its upper-left position on the map.
Likewise, one level down, Wa l g re e n ’s has the highest market
capitalization in the retail drug sector. Additionally, the area of the
honeycomb cell visually re p resents a second attribute, such as trading
volume (i.e. the larger the cell, the higher the volume). Finally, a third
data attribute could be captured by the fill color of the cells (not
shown). In the investment sphere, the color codes would indicate
the change in market price over a designated period of time. Red cells
would indicate price declines, yellow cells would indicate minimal
price changes, and green cells would indicate price increases. Thus,
the honeycomb map is able to convey both data hierarchy and up to
t h ree data attributes within a single plane view. In more sophisticated
applications, the individual cells can be linked to underlying data to
provide drill down capability from the individual data elements (cells)
to underlying cause factors. Such a visual display can be applied to
a wide variety of scenarios as we will illustrate with MERIT.
M E R I T ’s honeycomb layer resides over existing data pro v i d i n g
Equipment Readiness and Visibility Using Honeycomb Maps
dynamic information on equipment readiness (perf o rmance) and
underlying supply chain status (visibility). 3 The MERIT front screen is
shown in Exhibit 2. The hierarchy tree for MERIT is built aro u n d
equipment groups and types. The equipment groups include Marine
e x p e d i t i o n a ry equipment such as radios, trucks, light arm o re d
vehicles, and the like. These equipment groups (or Functional Areas,
FA’s) are visible on the MERIT screen as the larger boxes in white
outline. Each cell within the equipment group includes a part i c u l a r
piece of equipment. For example, the upper left-hand cell labeled
A2171 is a vehicular radio set. This hierarchy configuration can be
changed by selecting alternative hierarchy definitions on the tabbed
drop down list. That is, users can change the honeycomb hierarchy
by changing the group from equipment functional definitions to
alternatives, such as commodity codes.
The cells of the honeycomb are sized and color coded according
to two attributes, or perf o rmance metrics, which can be defined fro m
the “size” and “color” drop down menus at the top of the scre e n .
MERIT uses the size and color dimensions to capture re a d i n e s s
characteristics of their equipment according to three measures, as
follows:
S-Rating =
R-Rating=
MR-Rating = S x R
Exhibit 2. MERIT front screen
Number on-hand (including pieces in maintenance)
Number Authorized
Number of units deployment ready
Number available (including pieces in maintenance)
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