Why You Shouldn’t Be Using Spreadsheets for Plant Walkdowns

It’s become quite clear that Excel is the go-to tool when workers don’t have a task-specific application to help them with data management. Spreadsheets are multifunctional with many features that can be utilized for various types of data management, all within a well understood interface. They’re a versatile tool for a lot of workers – just not the best solution for your plant walkdowns.

Spreadsheets Do More Harm Than Good

Spreadsheets are quickly becoming the inferior approach to gathering and collecting data for asset-intensive plants because they lack in the functionalities of newer productivity tools out there. When using a spreadsheet to conduct a plant walkdown, you’re putting your own data at risk.

With large quantities of information being input into a spreadsheet all at once, data errors and faulty entries are bound to occur. Spreadsheets lack the ability to identify and validate these errors, leading to incorrect data inputs and large amounts of time wasted having to manually verify them afterwards. In fact, most work within a spreadsheet is manual and time-consuming. Any data updates require a user to go into the spreadsheet and change the data themselves. Not only that, but if there is more than one user working on the spreadsheet at a time, things may get quite messy due to the lack of audit trails or tracking. Emailing spreadsheets back and forth and merging them is a nightmare for large data volumes. During a plant walkdown, you need these functions available to your whole team for fast, efficient, and accurate gathering of your data.

NRX AssetHub Can Help You With Your Walkdowns

It’s clear that spreadsheets don’t make the cut when it comes to conducting plant walkdowns, so what’s the better option? Other productivity tools are out there to aid you in gathering plant data, but NRX AssetHub does it best. Our tools aid your company from start to finish in the entire plant walkdown process, enabling you to seamlessly match your virtual data to your actual physical plant data. Data that is collected, validated, and approved in NRX AssetHub is easily synced to your asset management system, allowing for a smooth workflow across the board. For more details about how we contribute to plant walkdowns, additional information can be found here.

NRX AssetHub is the best choice for conducting plant walkdowns. Lose the spreadsheets and start using NRX AssetHub to effectively gather the data you need to keep operations running smoothly. Interested in giving it a try? Reach out to us for a free demo and see how NRX AssetHub can enhance your plant walkdown experience.