Automate, Streamline and Improve the Accuracy of the Excel Workbooks you use in Functions like Scheduling, Procurement and Inventory Management Forecasting

Would you like to Automate, Streamline and Improve the Accuracy of the Excel workbooks that you use in functions like Scheduling, Procurement and Inventory Management Forecasting?

Many organisations use complex Excel based workbooks to model, assess and predict different scenarios based on data feeds from the Core Financial, Material Requirements Planning, Inventory and Production Scheduling modules in their ERP Systems.

Are you Pushing the Boundaries of Excel?

Using Excel to manage these complex processes often leads to several problems and risks that other more suitable solutions can mitigate. Using the right solution and technology can remove significant waste from your processes. Below we outline three main issues that can arise when using Excel and solutions we developed for our clients using the Microsoft Power Platform.

1.     Accuracy of Data:

Are you confident in the accuracy of the data in your Excel based solutions?

Pushing the boundaries of Excel to manage these tasks can lead to unreliable data input and unreliable output which affects every decision you make using that data. By error proofing your data you can have confidence that you are basing your Scheduling, Procurement and Inventory Management decisions on accurate, sound and reliable data leading to greater savings in your process.

We have delivered a project recently, to a Multinational Medical Device manufacturer, where the application of Power Automate and Power BI has achieved error proofing and removed significant waste from our clients process to deliver a Business Intelligence tool within the Excel environment that allows them to perform real “What-If” analysis and Modelling to provide accurate insights that support their critical decision-making process.

“Great team who are easy to work with, very good engagement throughout with regular meetings. The current tool was so open to manual error the error proofing delivered with Power Query has really removed waste from the process and is a huge win for us. “

2.     Time:

Are you spending too much time collating, transforming and error checking raw data in your Excel based systems?

This process can be slow, manual and prone to errors.

For one client, a leading Medical Device manufacturer, the application of Power Automate to their Inventory Management process has significantly reduced the hours per month spent manually collating data from 32 hours to just 4 hours on the same task.  Aside from the obvious cost savings key staff can now spend more time on value-add activities to identify improvements that will impact their metrics.

3.     Visualising Data:

Are your charts insightful enough for you to make informed decisions that are critical for your business in terms of ordering of materials and production planning?

Using Excel to create graphs and charts to communicate metrics with various stakeholders can be time consuming, frustrating, underwhelming, and difficult for the intended audience to understand. You need to ensure that your charting and reporting is insightful enough for you to make informed decisions that are critical for your business in terms of ordering of materials and production planning.

We resolved this issue for our client, a leading multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer where we significantly reduced the time spent manipulating and charting Excel data for their reports. We used PowerBI to deliver a functional, visually appealing dashboard showing their data at a high level with the ability to drill down into the data enabling them to easily & intuitively “Tell the story” of their metrics to a number of audiences relying on their data including Senior Management, Production Managers and Quality Managers.

In addition to the reduction in time spent creating the reports and graphs from Excel the PowerBI Dashboards enabled relevant internal stakeholders to better understand the data being presented and allowed them to make more informed decisions as a result.

Can the Microsoft Power Platform help you to improve your Excel Processes?

Contact us to learn more about the detail of the projects we have delivered to address the issues of data accuracy, time and visualisation when using Excel.

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