# Microsoft Access vs. Microsoft Excel



## lindseyschlabac (Oct 26, 2004)

What benefits does Microsoft Access give over Microsoft Excel? Other than Access can more easliy direct users to what they can and cannot change. 

But what if you only needed 1 user to manipulate changes, what would Access provide over Excel?

I am needing a scheduling solution for a moderatly complex manufacturing process that needs to have a lot of flexibility.


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## scottydont2841 (Aug 3, 2005)

access is a lot more suited to this because of the querys and reports it can create....in my opinion anyway


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## Chevy (Jul 25, 2003)

Just curious - is this task based scheduling. That is, Task B can't start until Task A has completed, etc.? If we could have some more details, we may be able to provide an even better solution than Access (why go through all the hassle of designing a database like this if there's a free or cheap solution out there?) :grin:


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## lindseyschlabac (Oct 26, 2004)

This is task based scheduling. It goes something like this!

manufacturing process: A customer wants to place an order for thier kitchen, we design it and send them a set of prints. They may choose to change them several times. When they have made all of their choices and have put a downpayment down we give them a 6-8 week tentative installation date. 
We than prepare shop prints to put into production.
1. Panel ends and Doors for the cabinets are ordered from a supplier at least 3 weeks in advance. 2. Order lists are made to send out to our in house manufacturing departments. 3. We have 7 cabinet makers that are each working on a job or a part of a job.
Each cabinet maker is scheduled to finish their job based off of how many units are in that paticular job. Each cabinet maker does a certain amount of units per hour based on skill and expierence. 
4. At least 5 other departments also have work do do on each job but generally multiple people are not working on multiple jobs. 5. The job goes from the face frame department to the cabinet makers to the finish department to the preinstalltion department to the istallation department. 
6. The top department needs to have their work completed by the time the installtion department begins their work. 7. The drawer department needs to have their work completed by the time the finish room begins their wor


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## MalachiConstant (Oct 14, 2005)

The million dollar question is this: What function does the program serve in your operations? If you're talking about a system to track every single individual who is on the job and the duties assigned to each as well as the date and/or time that each of those duties is fulfilled, that will get terribly complicated in Excel because of the relational database capabilities of Access.

To oversimplify, the way it works in Access is this: You don't need to repeat each person's information for each item they have to work on, and neither do you have to repeat each item's particular specifications if you want to know at a glance what each employee is working on. So you have a table of employees and a table of items, with the two tables linked together so you know exactly which employees are working on which items. Similarly, you could have a table of departments linked to the table of employees, a table of jobs linked to the table of items, the table of departments linked to the table of jobs, etc. Then you could assemble queries and reports to tell you what jobs are still active, what has been completed in the last week, what tasks have been completed on jobs that are still open, etc.

If, on the other hand, this complex interactivity and functionality is overkill for your particular use, you might prefer to go with the simplicity of an Excel sheet, where you can simply hit the AutoFilter button and see all the jobs assigned to an employee. If you're looking to lay out a sheet for each job, for example, and have a step-by-step checklist for each one, an Excel template might be in order.


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