Excel is always talked about as an essential component in any modern business, yet few people understand just how crucial Excel can be to a successful operation. The package has many formulas and functions that can be used in data analysis, reporting, and planning. It’s also versatile and can be customised to meet the individual needs of each business, department or user.
Learning excel has become an essential part of career development. A requirement of many job applications will be a knowledge of Excel and other related applications. Luckily, learning Excel doesn’t need to be a challenge as there are many resources available to help you. For example, you can use video resources and peer-to-peer studying to learn Excel.
You could enrol onto Excel courses or training programmes. Many institutions offer packages from beginner to advance levels. These kinds of courses help learners improve their skills and apply them to different industries. A primary industry where excel is utilised is in supply chain management!
How Excel Courses Simplify Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management requires vision and a high level of competence. Using Excel in the day-to-day running and activities of the supply chain will make the work easier to accomplish. Generally, effective supply chain management requires data gathering, analysis, reporting, and inferences which can be done using Excel.
Here are just a few ways you can utilise Excel within your supply chain management armoury;
By Expanding Supply Chain Spreadsheet
You can easily use filters and tabular data to expand the supply chain spreadsheet to accommodate more information on products and suppliers. Understanding how to create and utilise formulas and filters may seem challenging, but this is a skill you can learn by completing an Excel course. Acuity Training offer a good course about this, allowing you to easily create a table containing names, credit terms, ratings, and addresses and other relevant information.
An expanded spreadsheet will help you discern what product is urgent and what isn’t. It’ll also help compare the ratings and costs of different suppliers. You will then be able to identify what products are mission-critical so that you can make them an urgent priority. This information is necessary for making crucial purchasing decisions in the business.
Using Excel For Stock Control
Monitoring stock is essential in supply chain management because it ensures that all critical products are in stock or replenished if they’re running out. Also, you can identify slow-moving products within the businesses to either reduce the quantities in the following stock order or avoid restocking until the current batch is sold.
Using Excel will help you by having a control tab in your management spreadsheet. The control tab will have items’ names, quantity, price, and date in/out. Any time you restock or sell, you can update the control tab. This will give the manager a more subtle and easy control of stock without physically checking or having to keep manual records.
Using Graphs To Present Reports
Supply chain managers are often required to generate reports and present them in a dashboard that’s easy to understand. Creating graphs and charts is usually the best way to present data in percentages, decimals, fractions, or numbers. The graphs will present data clearly and concisely, eliminating the need of using blocks of texts to present ideas or reports.
As a supply chain manager, learning how to create these charts and graphs is very important. You can use colour filters to distinguish different bars, columns, or segments to make it understandable. You also have to ensure proper labelling of axes and the charts before presentations. These are skills you can acquire through Excel training Courses.
Using Excel To Forecast Trends
In supply chain management, forecasting is important because it helps you know what products to restock, and when. This will help ensure your companies money is being spent on the correct products that consumers want, which you can calculate based on their ordering behaviours and market trends. The forecast function that’s available in Excel is a great way to record and analyse the data to support your planning and purchasing decisions.
The forecast function will create a worksheet that consists of past data and forecast numbers. You can use these forecasted numbers as an idea of how your products will be purchased. Using this function can be challenging to run or even interpret. Ensure you understand how to use the function correctly in order to make smart supply chain decisions.
By Automating Tasks
Automation is necessary for effective supply management. It helps simplify tasks by allowing them to run with very little intervention, meaning more tasks are completed. For example, a company that has inventory management software can extract data from Excel sheets. The data can then be analysed and consolidated with Excel macros automatically.
Carrying out these processes manually can be time-consuming, but with Excel macros connected to software, the data can run independently to ensure you always have accurate data. Supply Chain managers who have limited knowledge of the full capabilities of Excel will likely be missing out from the full benefits of automation, which shows why Excel courses are essential.
Using VLOOKUP Function To Search Values
When dealing with a bulky database, the chances of human errors are always high. This may compromise the whole database and be a serious problem for a business. Good Excel knowledge can prevent such occurrences through the VLOOKUP function.
The function works by creating an extra column on the spreadsheet. You can then insert the VLOOKUP function and use it to search for the values you want. It’ll also output the corresponding values so that you can broaden your search scope.
Using Excel To Query Database
Excel spreadsheets can be connected to many databases, programmes and systems to enable supply chain managers to update their database and run queries. This enables them to produce tailored reports for specific requirements such as the best suppliers or suppliers with the shortest lead time. An Excel course will help you understand how to effectively query databases and produce this information.
Conclusion
Excel is an important component of any supply chain operation. You can query databases, report findings, update databases, automate tasks and so much more with Excel. If you are not already proficient in Excel, expanding your knowledge will pay dividends in the future for both your career progression and your business.