Did you know 90% of spreadsheets contain errors? Businesses don’t often utilize spreadsheets correctly, which leads to challenges in maintenance planning and scheduling. Spreadsheets were designed to organize data so data could be manipulated to calculate different elements. Spreadsheets are very versatile, so they are found in many businesses. Despite spreadsheets being popular, they often lead to many issues, especially in scheduling.
1. Spreadsheets lack accuracy
Only 10% of the information found on spreadsheets is accurate. It is not the spreadsheet itself that’s the issue, but it is the user error: frequent manual changes, copy/paste errors, and other tasks. These errors lead to the organization not being capable of supporting business intelligence.
2. Spreadsheets are slow
Having to manually design a spreadsheet for your organization can be extremely time-consuming. Not only is building a template laborious, but whenever there is maintenance scheduled, the template needs to be adjusted. Even without thinking about the design aspect, spreadsheets lack other time-saving attributes: one-click scheduling, changes to work orders, and much more, which would save schedulers time.
3. Spreadsheets don’t report back to your software
Even if your spreadsheet has all the necessary data, importing all your data into your software is even more cumbersome. Whenever you receive an update, both the spreadsheet and software need to be adjusted. Having to do manual data entry means someone may skip over an important step, leaving behind bad data.
4. Spreadsheets don’t update in real-time
Any scheduling changes need to be manually updated in your spreadsheet. Spreadsheets should be updated daily, but it is very time-consuming. Since employees have other job responsibilities, some updates may be missed.
Not being able to update in real-time also makes it difficult to track maintenance. Not having an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system means you don’t know when/if crews finished their projects, if there were any complications, or if crews had all the parts they needed. Not having the software for this information to automatically be inputted into your system causes maintenance delays.
5. Spreadsheets reduce accountability
When it comes to editing a spreadsheet, there are only two ways to save your document: on a hard drive or in the cloud. If you save the spreadsheet on a hard drive, no one will be able to see the changes in real-time. This is not helpful, especially with scheduling. The other option is to save the document in the cloud. This allows only authorized individuals to access and edit the document, but there are still other issues.
Saving to the cloud means you need to identify who can and cannot edit the spreadsheet. If an employee needs to edit the sheet but is not authorized, it will never get updated. On the other hand, if they are authorized to edit and mess up the task, it is impossible to undo the mistake. Tracking changes may allow you to see who edited the document, but it will not undo the damage.
6. Spreadsheets don’t support mobility well
If you need to view your spreadsheet on a non-desktop device, more issues can arise. If not yet implemented, it is important to go mobile if you are part of an asset-intensive organization. Having mobile maintenance unlocks many benefits: better data, more flexibility, and more wrench time.
7. Spreadsheets don’t scale well
Small businesses may have more ease utilizing spreadsheets, but a workforce with dozens of employees cannot say the same. Attempting to find data points in a spreadsheet that is made for tracking schedules for hundreds of employees is an impossible task. If you need to track employees on multiple sites it becomes even more arduous.
Now it is time to talk about the solution, AssetWorks Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). AssetWorks EAM automatically schedules maintenance making for simple scheduling. Our software also saves your assets from sudden breakdown by notifying you when maintenance is due. Staying on top of asset maintenance increases the asset life cycle and saves your organization money.
