Access or Excel for my project?

Broke

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Oct 2, 2009
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I am new to Access and Excel. Years ago I used a program called Q&A and was able to grasp how to set it up for building a database to suit my needs. I seem to have forgotten how to do it. I am going to probably purchase a book to learn both Access and Excel but my needs are more immediate than that. I am in a bit of a pickle because my emplorer seems to think I already have the ability to just whip this together and I have not told them otherwise. So any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ok, firstly, they are using Access and Excel 2002 editions. This is a multimillion dollar company, but thats all they have on the computer they alloted to the department in which I work. I'm not even sure which program would be best suited for what I'm doing, so I'm currently toggling between both. Let's pretend we're talking about a car manufacturer quality control department. I'll describe a scenario that is similar to what I'm trying to accomplish. Let's say a car comes off the mold and is ready for inspection. I have a clipboard and walk around the vehicle. Let's say the areas of concern are the DOORS, TIRES, WINDOWS, HOOD and TRUNK (in actuality I'm dealing with many more points). I'm looking for flaws of course, and on my clipboard I mark the flaws i.e, Doors: 5 (DS)Dents, 2 (CP)Chipped Paint, 7 (SC)Scratches, etc. Then I continue to the ROOF and mark 2 DEnts, 3 Chipped Paint, etc. In actuality in my inspection process, there are 17 parts I must inspect, looking for any and all of 24 flaws/defects. These are now needed to be entered into a computer for recording, and ideally analysis. What is wrong with each car, Where on the car are we finding the most flaws and how many of each. Ultimately I'd like to then see a graphical representation of the improvement in manufacturing over time.

Currently, I have both a form in Access to enter the data, and a table in Excel. In excel I currently have the Columns representing each part I inspect i.e, Column A= Doors, Column B= Roof, etc. The rows are the vehicles themselves with the primary being a serial number. Now for the problem. Let's say I want to enter the data for the doors, and it has 6 (SC)scratches and 7 (DS)dents. In the cell I am currently entering "SC,SC,SC,SC,SC,SC,SC,DS,DS,DS,DS,DS,DS,DS". Which I know is bassackwards for anyone who knows what they're doing, of which I am not one. I have no idea how to structure the table(?) to accept entry so that I can quantify the entries without repetitive entries like above. I did think of putting DS7 but thought that would not be logical.. I don't know why. So I'm imagining that I have to have a sensical table(?) first for the foundation the data will ultimately reside in, and simply make an entry form off of that.

Currently I have a mess.
I NEED HELP.

BTW, this is NOT actually anything dealing with cars, I just used that as an example that would translate easier. Also, when I mentioned viewing quality control "over time", the time is really just a few days. So any help would be really really really helpful. I'm sure there are some kind of templates out there that exist that can be adapted for my purposes, but I haven't been able to find them. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Excel Facts

Format cells as time
Select range and press Ctrl+Shift+2 to format cells as time. (Shift 2 is the @ sign).
If you need a quick fix, then probably an excel solution will be the easiest to start you off. And it looks like it owuld probably be suitable for the project. Theoretically a database would be best, but then you need to think and plan your table structure etc etc. Get things wrong and it would be difficult to change.

Access is not the easiest database to work with.

With an excel you could always export it to a properly designed database later.
 
Upvote 0
Okay, I'll use Excel. Anyone want to give me a boost up? I'm at sea and going to start from scratch and just reenter all of the data manually when I get/make a worksheet appropriate for this task. This seems like it should be relatively easy for anyone with Excel experience. I'm hoping for someone to point me in the right direction and maybe just walk me to the end of the block.
 
Upvote 0
You should use Access.

It might take a bit of work to set up but believe me if done properly it'll have it's advantages.

It could also potentially help avoid future grief.

The way I would go about setting things up would be to keep the existing setup, if it's working that is.

Then sit down and work out the proper structure for the tables etc for the database.

Once that's done set the database up and test it with sample data, which could actually be real data - just keep the other method up and running alongside.

Test the database until you are satisfied with it and then begin to migrate over to it.

Using your car example I can think of at least 3 tables you would have - one for the cars, one for the parts and one for the faults.

Like I said may take a bit of work but could be worth it in the long run.:)
 
Upvote 0
Hello,

I fancy having a go with your excel database project, could you PM me with all the details with what is imvolved and i will let you know

Cheers

Steve
 
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