In this guide 6 sections
Spreadsheets work for a small shop. They fail on BOM revisions, drawing versions and dispatch papers once several editors touch one workbook and no one can tell which copy is current. Move to purpose-built software the first time a wrong revision reaches the shop floor, and keep the spreadsheet for quick calculations.
Where spreadsheets still do the job
A shop with five open machines and one planner runs well on Excel, with the BOM in one tab and the status in another. The planner knows every line by heart. Nothing about that is wrong.
Spreadsheets are cheap and familiar. You can add a column for heat treatment or powder coating in a minute, while software asks for weeks of setup before it saves anyone time.
The trouble starts when the planner goes on leave or when a second person begins editing the same file from another desk.
BOM revisions are the first thing to break
A machine BOM changes during the build. A shaft is lengthened, a bearing is swapped, and a gusset bracket is redrawn after the fitters find a clash with the hydraulic hose. In a spreadsheet, each change is simply a typed edit that leaves no trace of the old value, the date or the person who made it.
Purchasing may have ordered bearings against revision B, while the lathe operator cuts the shaft to revision C and nobody finds out until the parts meet at assembly.
Software that keeps BOM revisions stores each version, marks what changed and shows which purchase orders and job cards used which one. That trace is the whole point.
- Revision number and date on every BOM
- Changed lines flagged against the previous version
- Purchase orders tied to the BOM revision
- Release step before the shop receives it
Drawings need a controlled home
In a spreadsheet, drawings live in shared folders that the sheet links to, so file names such as final, final-new and final-revised pile up over the months. A machinist grabs the first PDF found.
A purpose-built system holds the drawing against part and revision, so only the released version reaches the shop, while old PDFs stay for reference but cannot be printed.
No drawing release step yet? Add one before you buy anything. It is a process fix first.
- One current drawing per part and revision
- Released and obsolete status
- Print log for shop floor copies
Dispatch papers expose gaps in the data
At dispatch you need a packing list, delivery note, test report, operator manual and invoice, and in a spreadsheet each is retyped from other tabs. Typing slips ship with the crate.
Software that holds the order, the serial number and the as-built BOM can generate every one of these papers from stored data in a single step. The test report stays with its machine.
Check one dispatched machine from last quarter. How long did the papers take?
A simple test for when to switch
Ask four questions, because each one points at a failure that spreadsheets cause once a shop passes a handful of open machines.
Two yeses mean the edge is near. Three or four mean the spreadsheet is already costing you rework in the fitting bay and at dispatch, whatever the file looks like.
Before you switch, clean the data. Write down this week’s open projects, their BOM revision and their drawing status, then ask whoever buys the parts to check it.
- Has a wrong revision been built or bought this year?
- Does more than one person edit the tracker?
- Do open projects exceed what one planner can hold in mind?
- Do customers ask for as-built records?
Spreadsheet versus software scorecard
A single printed worksheet. Six rows cover BOM revisions, drawing control, purchasing links, job cards, dispatch papers and as-built records, and columns record how the spreadsheet handles each today. Two more columns hold a recent error example and a score out of five, and a bottom block tallies the result against the switch test.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can a shared spreadsheet fix the revision problem?
Partly. Locking cells and adding a revision column helps. It still cannot tie a purchase order or a drawing to one specific revision, so the risk moves from the sheet to the folder and the inbox.
Do we need to give up Excel entirely?
No. Many shops keep Excel for quick calculations such as cutting lengths and weights, and move the BOM, drawings and dispatch papers into a system.
What should we move first?
Begin with the BOM and the drawing release step for new projects, since those two are where wrong revisions start, and leave finished machines in the old file.
How do we avoid a messy changeover?
Run the new system on one live project beside the spreadsheet, compare the BOM, drawing and dispatch outputs line by line, and expand only once both match.