It is important to me that a dashboard be of stable structure or in a stable grid, regardless of dimensional filtering or data variability. Tableau Desktop devised this menu function of Analysis > Table Layout > Show Empty Columns/Rows for that matter. But it will gray out and does not work when a secondary data source is in view, i.e., when we use blending or cross data source filtering. And it won't work when it is filtered by the same dimension filter.

Then here is a method I use to keep the grid fixed and show empty columns all the time no matter what.  I created an example here where a regular cross tab table is re-designed to have a stable grid. 

Here are the main steps I used.

1) Create a specific measure for each dimension member like

2) Drag Measure Names to the filter shelf and check the four new measures.

3) Create a cross tab table as follows. This table will always show empty columns, even when being filtered by the same Ship Mode dimension.

The two following bar charts are derivatives from the above and have a fixed grid.

Feel free to check out the workbook here.

Caveats: There might be a performance penalty in calculating the columns individually when data volume is big.