DATA DRIVEN DECISION MAKING

Project Report on
EXCEL FOR MATERIAL PROCUREMENT AND
SUPPLY CHAIN AUTOMATION

Prepared By1. Akshay Gupta - 073

2. Deepika Sachdeva - 088
3. Joseph Yesuvadian - 089
4. Kirti Rajpal - 090
5.

Mayuresh Mhase- 092

6. Sagar Gupta - 111

Reviewed ByMr. Prashant Barge

What is Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain is the collection of steps that a company takes to transform raw materials into finished
goods.
It mainly involves the process flow of the goods from the supplier, modification of the goods as per the
customer requirements and the final delivery to the customer.
Basic components of SCM are:

Plan
Plan includes market survey, product analysis related to the product. This is mainly done in
order to identify whether similar product exists in the market or not. In case if it exists, then
how our product can be different from the existing one. Excel is used widely in such cases to
record all the data related to these process.

Develop
This mainly includes the identification of the role of the vendor and the company in deciding
the product manufacturing for uninterrupted flow of manufacturing.

Make
Once the development is planned, it is implemented and the entire process is setup for the
same. Excel tool is used in this process to implement the same

Deliver
In this phase, the product is delivered to the logistics supplier and the corresponding status is
recorded. In such case if there is a need to analyse the data and populate the statistics, then
excel is used widely.

Return
This mainly includes the return of the goods from the customer due to different reasons. The
product returned is then tracked and recorded accordingly.

Uses of Excel in SCM

This is the sample Supply Chain Management model as shown:

It mainly consists of
1. A configured System: This mainly includes an ERP system with necessary functionalities to
ensure the uninterrupted flow of Supply Chain Management.
2. SCM Modules: It includes many parameters such as forecasting, report generation, data
interface, BOM, etc.
In all these process, excel is used to interface with ERP system and fetch necessary data. The
data once fetched can be analyzed accordingly and necessary statistics can be populated
accordingly.
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This is mainly used in scenarios where the industry may have ERP system while the vendor or
supplier may not have such systems. In such cases, excel plays prime role in maintain the data
and ensuring smooth flow of information between the two parties.
In such cases Excel provides the following functionalities:
1. Automating with one click of a button. E.g. Macro, etc.
2. Interfacing with data stored in the legacy ERP system. E.g. SAP, etc.
3. Separating data, calculations, and reporting.
4. Normalized data tables.
5. Pasting down formulas and replacing them with values.
6. Reporting and data manipulation with PivotTables.
The following figure show the sample template for the BOM (Bill Of Materials) used in the Supply
Chain Management.

The following figure shows the revision summary of the changes made during the order placement

Advantages of Excel in Supply Chain Management

1. It is easy to learn and use it for most of the industry requirements.
2. You can quickly and easily configure it to your specific needs and preferences as per
requirement.
3. It is highly portable-you can use it almost everywhere and share it easily with others. The size of
the document is very less and hence it ensures smooth flow of the data through any channel.
4. It is ubiquitous. It is used by most of the organizations.
5. It is inexpensive and easily available.

Procurement in Materials Management

Excel is used in procurement in the same way as in case of supply chain management.
For building Purchase Orders, Purchase request, Requisition reports it is widely used. All the
communication between the industry and the vendors or the suppliers related to the procurement is
exclusively carried out using Excel. Hence, it is of paramount importance in maintaining the financial
details related to the procurement.

The following figure shows sample template of the procurement sheet.

Excel is inadequate due to following reasons

1. Huge amount of data
If the data in the excel sheet is huge, then it becomes difficult to analyze and becomes time
consuming to produce necessary results.
2. Multiple users
If there are multiple users who want to modify the data simultaneously, then excel cannot be
utilized efficiently.
3. Cost of failure
Excel sheet generally contains decision making parameters. Even a slight change in any one
parameter can result in wrong decision and can cause huge financial losses.
4. Mathematical complexity
Many of the complex mathematical functions are not supported by Excel.
5. Complex connections
If there is need to generate statistics by combining different sheets in the excel, at such times,
the complexity increases exponentially.
6. Uncertainty Scenario
The excel files are prone to corruption which render huge loss of data.
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