3. Creating Manifests in Google Sheets
While valid Manifest documents can be generated in a variety of ways, one of the most popular and convenient ways to create a Manifest document is through a spreadsheet-like interface such as the one offered by Google Sheets. While they may not be desirable for sensitive documents, Google Sheets are not only stored remotely, they can be shared across multiple users and passed directly to the Manifest visualization to be rendered on demand.
We provide a template for Google Sheets that can be used to create documents. You are also welcome to view a sample Google Sheet document.
- Manifest Template: https://bit.ly/manifest-template-v2
- Manifest Template with Demo Content (Tesla Model Y 2022): https://bit.ly/manifest-template-demo
- Template with Demo Content Loaded on Manifest: https://manifest.supplystudies.com/dev/#gsheet-1oufmRw_TM9LUjM8p0V7stPvePWnkBxRZDc02aFvjSLc
Watch the Quick Start Guide on Youtube
The Manifest Template for Google Sheets is divided into tabbed subsheets, each described below.
| Name | Description | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 Tesla Model Y | The Tesla Model Y is an all-electric vehicle manufactured by Tesla, Inc. It was first unveiled in March 2019, and its production began in January 2020 at the Fremont Factory. The Model Y was the fifth car produced by the company and is based on the Model 3 sedan which they share seventy-five percent of the same parts. In terms of performance and pricing Model Y falls between the model X and model 3. The vehicle has autopilot features and full-self driving. According to reports, the Model Y is one of the best-selling cars worldwide with 759,000 cars being sold last year. Tesla is continously shifting their headquarters, manufacturers and suppliers, therefore, this sheet contains supply chain information that is releveant to the US 2022 model Y. | There are two model Y vehicles: the model Y long-range and Model Y performance. Both use AWD motors but are different in their range, speed and acceleration. |
Name - The name column is the name for your Manifest document, this is usually the name of an object
- For Example:
iPhone 14 Manifest.
Description - The description column provides a space for an overall description of your Manifest document, which will appear at the top of the Manifest. You can include markdown formatting like italics, and links like https://supplystudies.com etc.) in the description.
Additional Notes - The additional notes column provides a space to keep any additional notes that don't really belong in the main description. This is kept as part of your Manifest document, but not displayed in a prominent way in any Manifest visualizations. You can use markdown formatting like _italics_ and urls like https://supplystudies.com will be automatically linked.
The rows in list tab represent the nodes that make up the Manifest document. Generally speaking, these are usually things like a part, supplier, or site (for example, parts like batteries, screens, and cases, companies like Apple, Foxconn, or Samsung, named facilities like factories, distribution hubs, or retail stores, etc.). However, they could represent any meaningful, discrete entity associated with the Manifest, even more abstract things like specific people, events, and ideas. Some Manifest documents might collapse many entities into a single row (for example, an entire row labeled "Retail Stores"). Others might list a few example nodes from a larger set ("Sample North American Factory, Sample Asian Factory, etc.). Generally speaking, we believe that being as specific as possible is usually to the benefit of the Manifest document, even if it produces a lot of repetitious content-listing ALL of the distribution hubs in a supply chain, for example.) For more information about how to organize a Manifest document, see best practices HERE.
| Index | Name | Description | Category | Images | Location | Geocode | DestinationIndex | Measure | Sources | AdditionalNotes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada Gigafactory | The Nevada Gigafactory focuses on the production of Lithium-ion batteries and battery cells. According to Tesla, the Nevada Gigafactory is “one of the world’s highest volume plants for electric motors" and produces a billion cells per year. https://www.tesla.com/giga-nevadaThere are currently 7,000 workers at this location and the company seeks to add more employees and expand the factory. | #factory,#battery | https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/delivery/public/image/tesla/e2c23cd4-6588-4e72-8a53-f49081a36663/bvlatuR/std/2880x1800/Nevada-Hero-Desktop | 1 Electric Ave, Sparks, NV 89437 | 39.5401658,-119.4396068 | 2,3,4,5,6 | size,5400000,sqft;people,11000,ct | https://www.tesla.com/blog/continuing-our-investment-nevada#:~:text=Building%20Gigafactory%20Nevada,world's%20transition%20to%20sustainable%20energy. | In January, Tesla announced a 6.2 million investment into the Gigfactory. The money would be used to add 3,000 employees, build a 100 GWH 4680 battery cell factory and 4M sq ft of new manufacturing footprint. |
Index - Every row in the list tab needs to have an index. Except in exceptional circumstances, this should just be a list that begins at 1 and increases with each subsequent row you add (so 1,2,3,4,5... etc.). Skipping or repeating numbers should be avoided. The index defines the order rows appear in for the Manifest document as well as identifier for the DestinationIndex column. By default a formula in Google Sheets updates this automatically.
Name - The name to associate with the given node, usually a part, supplier, or similar sort of site.
- For example:
Lithium Battery,Foxconn,Shenzhen Assembly Facility.
Description - The main content for the node, this is the textual description of what this node is written in as much detail as is reasonable. It can include markdown formatting like _italics_.
Category - The category column represents categories, keywords, or tags associated with each given node. Generally speaking, categories allow you to define qualitative variables associated with a given node--traits or conditions that apply to them, but which cannot be otherwise quantified. For example, you might tag any node associated with "upstream" companies providing components or materials to a Manifest for a product as #supplier. All categories must be prefixed with a hash (#). A node can have multiple categories, and each category should be separated with a comma (,) and no additional spaces. While one could add whatever categories one might like, since one of the primary uses for categories in Manifest is to filter and show all nodes matching a given category, it usually makes sense to ensure that categories are standardized across nodes and applicable to more than one node.
- For Example:
#supplier,#factory,#upstream
Images - Each node can have images associated with it. Images must be entered as full urls wrapped with parentheses ((http://website.site/someimage.jpg)). Urls to webpages, or pasting images into google sheets can either result in images not be displayed or Manifest failing to load. Multiple images can be used. They must be separated by commas (,) between parentheses.
- For example:
(http://website.site/someimage.jpg),(http://website.site/otherimage.png)
Location - Because Manifest documents are primarily (though not necessarily) geographic, most nodes will have locations associated with them. Location information for each node is divided between the location column and the geocode column. The location column contains the textual label for the location shown on the Manifest document, which could be as specific as a street address or it could be more general (a region, like "East Coast," a country, like "China," or a continent, like "South America" etc.). Usually, though not always, the location label is what is used to create the Geocode column.
Geocode - Because Manifest documents are primarily (though not necessarily) geographic, most nodes will have locations associated with them. Location information for each node is divided between the location column and the geocode column. The geocode column is a latitude and longitude pair, separated by a comma. Manifest expects a precise latitude and longitude even for more generally described locations.
- For Example:
40.712776,-74.005974
DestinationIndex - While not all Manifest documents show connection (some, for example, might be an unconnected map of points), many do. The destination index column allows you to describe those connections. Using the index column for each node as the reference, the destination column represents places the given node is connected, moving, supplying to, etc. (and in that direction). For example, if the row with index 1 is a parts supplier who delivers to two factories, we would include the index numbers for both of those factories in the destination index column. Multiple entires are separated like commas. Reciprocal relationships will require two nodes that each have the other's index in their destination index column.
- For example: a destination index of
1,2,3,5,11for a given node indicates that that node is connected to nodes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 11.
Measure - The measure column represents quantitative variables--things which can be measured. This could be something like weight, carbon footprint, water use, size, number of employees, financial measures, and so on. Measures are described with three pieces of information: The label for the measurement, the value of the measurement, and the unit it is defined in. Generally speaking it is helpful to have a clear, human-readable name for the label, and a short abbreviation for the unit. All measures must be wrapped in parentheses and have each of these pieces of information. For example, if we were interested in keeping track of component and material weights in a Manifest document, we might have a measure entry like: (weight,10,kg). This appears to users with the label "weight" and shows a value of 10 with a unit of kg--kilograms. Nodes can have multiple measures, which should be separated by commas between parentheses.
While for some measures the unit may be familiar or obvious (kilograms--kg, pounds--lbs), in other cases you may be unsure what unit to use. If you are representing dates, for example, we recommend using Unix Time Stamps with the unit
utc(you may find it useful to refer to the site Epoch Converter to convert dates into timestamps). If you want to represent a count of some kind (number of people, number of buildings) you could also use the generic unitct(forcount). More specific abbreviations can be found at Abbreviations.com by searching forTerm » Abbreviation(for example, according to https://www.abbreviations.com/abbreviation/buildings the common abbreviation forbuildingsisbldg.
- For example, if we have a node with a weight of 10kg and a cost of 12 cents (or 0.12 US dollars), we might represent it in measure column like:
(weight,10,kg),(cost,0.12,usd). While one could add whatever measures one might like, since one of the primary uses for measures in Manifest is to visualize and compare all nodes with a given measure, it usually makes sense to ensure that measures are standardized across nodes and applicable to more than one node.
Sources - We strongly encourage every node to have sourcing / reference information associated with it. This ensures that people looking at a Manifest document understand where the information concerning this node comes from. Generally speaking, sources are urls. Multiple sources may be included. For example, perhaps the details for a node representing a supplier comes from one source, but some of the measures for that source (financial details, output measures, etc.) come from another. Sources are wrapped in parentheses, and multiple sources separated by commas between parenthesis. While these are often URLs, they can also be more traditional textual citations.
- For example:
(http://test.com/source1.html),(http://test.com/source2.html),("Some Article," The New York Times (August 6, 2020))
AdditionalNotes - The additional notes column provides a space to keep any additional notes that don't really belong in the main node description. This is kept as part of your Manifest document, but not displayed in a prominent way in any Manifest visualizations. You can use markdown formatting like _italics_ and urls like https://supplystudies.com will be automatically linked.
There are some 'special' measures that are treated differently in the Manifest web app, and nodes in Manifest documents can also be given certain styling cues to tell Manifest how to display them. For more details, see https://github.com/hock/Manifest/wiki/4.-Manifest-Document-Format#data-notes.
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Color - Each node can have color information associated with it independent of the overall document color scheme. This can be useful for showing categorizations, groupings, etc. As described in the Manifest Document Format data notes, this color information includes a primary color, a secondary color, and a contrasting color (usually used for text). To enter this information in Google Sheets your document should include a column titled Color in the List sheet. Individual colors for nodes can be entered as hexadecimal colors in the format:
primary,secondary,contrasting. For example:#3498DB,#dbedf9,#dbedf9 - Icon - Each node can include an icon drawn from a pre-selected list (see the Manifest Document Format data notes linked above for the complete list). To enter this information in Google Sheets your document should include a column titled Icon in the List sheet. Individual icons for nodes can be entered by including the appropriate icon name in the corresponding row.