Excel has been an integral part of production planning in small and medium-sized businesses for many years. Entering orders, scheduling deadlines, organizing capacity—all of this can be managed quickly and flexibly using Excel. Many companies have customized their Excel spreadsheets over the years to fit their own workflows. These spreadsheets contain a wealth of experience and valuable process knowledge. Today, however, the organization of production is no longer the same as it was a few years ago and has become significantly more demanding.
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Smaller batch sizes, an increasing variety of product variants, last-minute customer changes, tighter delivery deadlines, and unplanned employee availability mean that production must adapt to changes multiple times a day. Decisions must be made more quickly, information must be available to all stakeholders simultaneously, and changes must be immediately visible.
This is exactly where Excel spreadsheets reach their natural limits.
Not because Excel is bad. But because spreadsheets simply weren’t designed for this kind of dynamic
Do you know this? Where Excel causes friction in everyday life
Symptoms and Causes
Many companies are familiar with typical situations that arise in day-to-day production:
- “When will my order be ready?” The sales department can’t answer this question on its own and has to check with production first.
- An order changes; a material is missing. It takes time for everyone involved to be on the same page.
- The office and the workshop use different versions. Yesterday’s printout is still valid on the machine.
- A bottleneck isn’t noticed until a deadline is already in jeopardy. No one sees him beforehand.
None of these situations is unusual, but each one takes time to gather and synchronize the necessary information. All of these numerous follow-up inquiries, coordination efforts, and manual changes add up to a significant time investment.
That is why, in many companies today, production planning is an ongoing process of gathering information to manually track the current status of production. This method of gathering information is labor-intensive and costs a great deal of time and money—every single day—without achieving any lasting results.
Modern production planning means transparency instead of maintaining spreadsheets
The key to production that is focused on deadlines and costs is the real-time integration of people, machines, and information. With modern production software, sales, work planning, production planning, and manufacturing all operate on the same information base at all times. Excel spreadsheets are replaced by a shared information system.
This also changes the nature of collaboration. Instead of manually passing on information,
- delivery dates are always up to date,
- changes are immediately visible to everyone,
- employees can view their work orders directly in digital form,
- production progress can be reported back immediately,
- and decisions are made based on current data rather than assumptions.
As a result, production becomes more transparent, faster, and significantly more resilient to short-term changes.
Excel knowledge is retained
A common misconception is that switching to new production software means losing all previous experience.
The opposite is true.
The processes, rules, and planning logic that have evolved over the years through working with Excel form the foundation for implementing a system like PPSimple. Proven knowledge is carried over while being supplemented with features that are difficult or impossible to implement using spreadsheets.
PPSimple: The consistent evolution of your production planning
PPSimple was developed specifically for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. The software is designed around familiar production workflows. Employees can get up to speed immediately because PPSimple is intentionally built around familiar ways of working. At the same time, PPSimple provides the centralized, up-to-date information base throughout the entire company that is so urgently needed.
Everyone involved has access to the same information. Employees view their work orders directly at the machine, report their progress digitally, and the production schedule updates automatically. Sales, production planning, and manufacturing all work from the same data source at all times.
This transforms static planning into a dynamic production process that is transparent, up-to-date, and easy for everyone to understand.
Stairs or elevator?
You can reach a goal by taking the stairs. With consistency and discipline, you can do it every day. Production planning software is like an elevator: same destination, less effort, and everyone arrives at the top at the same time. Not because taking the stairs was wrong, but because this route is easier.
PPSimple in a nutshell
PPSimple is software for production planning and paperless manufacturing in manufacturing companies with 10 to 200 employees—in the fields of mechanical engineering, metalworking, toolmaking, machine tool manufacturing, and special-purpose machine manufacturing—that want to digitize their production without a complex ERP system. The cloud-based solution from SDZ GmbH tracks production orders, machine utilization, and production progress in real time and can be up and running in 3 to 5 business days without the need for an IT project.
How PPSimple makes a difference in everyday manufacturing
Typical information gathered from user interviews. The exact values depend on the specific operation.
Fewer minutes spent searching and asking questions each day
One additional hour of productivity per week per employee
Business days until deployment
Contract manufacturer | 80 Employees | Varying orders, lack of overview
“Our Excel planning system had grown over the years and was actually working well. Still, we spent a good half hour every day clarifying details and searching for information. Now everyone sees the same status, and the sales team can give a definitive answer as to when an order will be ready.”
Thomas R., Production Manager
On-time delivery rate increased from 71% to 94%.
Who specifically benefits from PPSimple in their business
Is Excel still the right tool for you?
- Does planning take your team more than an hour each day?
- Can your sales team give a reliable delivery date off the top of their head?
- Do the office and workshop sometimes operate at different levels?
- Do bottlenecks only become apparent when a deadline is already in jeopardy?
- Is all the planning expertise concentrated in one person’s head?
Did you answer “yes” more than twice? Then it’s worth taking a look at your plans together.
Frequently asked questions
No. This experience is the best template for the setup. PPSimple mirrors your usual workflow instead of replacing it. The familiar way of working remains the same; it just becomes centralized, up-to-date, and visible to everyone.
Yes. PPSimple runs entirely in the cloud and can be accessed through any browser. It requires no server, no installation, and no IT department. The SDZ team will work with you to set it up.
Experience shows that this becomes an issue once planning takes more than an hour a day, delivery deadlines become harder to meet, or it becomes difficult to keep track of current orders. In most manufacturing companies, this is the case when there are between 15 and 40 employees in production.
Existing master data—such as machines, employees, and order types—is imported during setup. Historical reports can continue to be maintained in Excel in parallel if needed; operational planning then takes place entirely in PPSimple.
Much less time-consuming than is often feared. PPSimple is ready for use in 3 to 5 business days without the need for an IT project or process changes. User training typically takes half a day.
Tanja Kernjak
Key-Account-Managerin
Phone: +49 160 99029606