A Spreadsheet-Based Prototype Enterprise System

A spreadsheet-based prototype enterprise system can serve as an effective tool for project engineers trying to sell an enterprise system to cautious managers. In some applications, it is capable of demonstrating the basic functionality of the large-scale system, such as scheduling and job costing, but without a large time and financial investment. It is found that, although closed-form computations, such as economic order quantity calculations, are easy to implement, the spreadsheet system computes them slowly. A system structure that can be used to construct departmental spreadsheets that change in real-time as other departments make decisions is proposed. Computational sluggishness, limited database capability and awkward user-interfaces are disadvantages that must be dealt with by an engineer seeking to build a quick prototype enterprise system using spreadsheets.

Download Publication