Spreadsheets are how almost every operation starts. They work, right up until they don't. The hard part is noticing the moment they have quietly become the bottleneck. Here are five signs your manufacturing floor has outgrown them.
1. Planned-vs-actual lives in one person's head
If a single workbook (and the person who maintains it) is the only source of truth for what you planned to build versus what you actually built, you have a key-person risk, not a system.
2. You find out about shortages too late
By the time a missing component stops a run, the cost is already locked in. Real MRP looks ahead at demand, lead times, and on-hand inventory so shortages surface days earlier, not at the work center.
3. Nobody trusts the numbers
When two people pull “the” inventory report and get two different answers, every meeting starts with a debate about the data instead of a decision.
4. Quality and traceability are manual
- Lot and batch traceability is a binder, not a query.
- A recall or audit means hours of reconstruction.
- In-process quality checks depend on someone remembering.
5. Growth makes it worse, not better
The tell-tale sign: every new customer, SKU, or shift adds disproportionate administrative drag. Systems that scale get easier per unit of volume; spreadsheets get harder.