page_title: Spaghetti plot
section_title: Business
hierarchical_section_title: Spaghetti plot / Applications / Business
caption_attribution_description: English: Example of “spaghetti diagram” used during workflow analysis for Glycemic Control Project. This diagram depicts the movement of the nurse while searching for a glucometer.
context_page_description: A spaghetti plot is a method of viewing data to visualize possible flows through systems. Flows depicted in this manner appear like noodles, hence the coining of this term. This method of statistics was first used to track routing through factories. Visualizing flow in this manner can reduce inefficiency within the flow of a system. In regards to animal populations and weather buoys drifting through the ocean, they are drawn to study distribution and migration patterns. Within meteorology, these diagrams can help determine confidence in a specific weather forecast, as well as positions and intensities of high and low pressure systems. They are composed of deterministic forecasts from atmospheric models or their various ensemble members. Within medicine, they can illustrate the effects of drugs on patients during drug trials.
context_section_description: Spaghetti diagrams were first used to track routing through a factory.  Spaghetti plots are a simple tool to visualize movement and transportation.  Analyzing flows through systems can determine where time and energy is wasted, and identifies where streamlining would be beneficial.  This is true not only with physical travel through a physical place, but also during more abstract processes such as the application of a mortgage loan.
caption: Spaghetti chart which shows nurse movement through a facility in the search for a glucometer
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