Too much for Excel?

[Ed]

A jewelry outfit my friend works for is making rings. They will get an
order for, say, 2,000 rings, with so many of various sizes - men's go from 6
to 14 in half-size increments, and women's from 4 to 12 in half-size
increments.

The rings are processed in batches. Each batch may or may not have the
total required for any one size. Each size in each batch goes through a
seven-step process. There are always some rings lost to defects after each
step. Then several batches are put together for another two or three
finishing steps.

Right now, my friend is trying to keep track of all of this on pieces of
paper and a whiteboard. He'd like to track it electronically. The thought
was that if he created (meaning I do it for him!) a basic template that he
could use for each new batch, he could then make Excel track how many get
lost at each step, how many they have completed and how many they still need
for each size. Oh - and they would also like to be able to track man-hours
by employee for each step of the process.

Are we getting out of the realm of Excel and into Access here? I'm thinking
it might be dome in Excel - a front page with all the order information, an
input form that creates a new sheet to track each batch, and VBA formulas to
update the order summaries and totals across all batch sheets, old and new.
Or would I be diving into very deep waters?

Ed

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

I should be OK in Excel. As you say, you would lay out a template, then
enter failures/hours at each step for each category. Formulas would show
the To Date results.

 

[Ed]

Okay - we'll give it a shot! We were talking about it last night, and it
seemed to just keep getting more and more complicated. But in thinking
about it today, it looked like it might be plausible. Whether *I* can do it
or not is a different story! But we'll find that out soon enough.

Thanks, Tom.
Ed

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

You need to sit down and get a good feel for what is needed. Define how the
user will interact with the spreadsheet and what the spreadsheet is expected
to accomplish.

It sounds to me that if you are replacing what is on a whiteboard, you are
providing in input interface and maintaining a progress report on quantities
(and hours expended).

If it gets more elaborate than that, you might choose access, but even excel
can handle small databases flat file databases.