Steel Fabrication ERP vs Excel: When Does a Spreadsheet Stop Working?
A spreadsheet stops working for a steel fabricator when several people need the same stock, job and cost data at once, and the numbers no longer match the shop floor. Typical triggers are untracked offcuts, drawing revisions that reach the shop late, jobs costed from last month’s rates, and outside processes with no pending-quantity record. At that point, steel fabrication ERP replaces manual reconciliation with one live database.
Bsquare Solutions develops Pothera ERP for manufacturers and has served them since 1999. This guide is honest about where Excel is still enough.
Is Excel enough for a steel fabrication business?
Yes, at the start. A single-yard fabricator with a handful of jobs, one person maintaining the sheets and simple stock can run on Excel and Tally for a long time. The problem is that spreadsheets scale with people, not with complexity.
Situation Excel is usually enough Excel starts failing
Number of live jobs A few at a time Many jobs, with different draw…
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