Insight For Excel

Very little is done in business without Microsoft® Excel playing a role. Activplant’s Insight for Excel is a Microsoft Excel add-in that provides a “live link” from Excel spreadsheets to ActivEssentials shop floor data. This provides you with the ability to create spreadsheets that not only pull data directly from plant operations, but spreadsheets that can be automatically updated with the latest information with the push of a button.

The Insight for Excel add-in allows spreadsheets built with embedded Activplant functions to pull data directly from ActivEssentials. You can use this information to drive calculations, but you can also aggregate the data with that from other sources, such as financial databases. Each cell can have a link to plant floor data or you can access data as lists or in matrices, allowing for flexible analysis and reporting. Because Microsoft Excel is an excellent aggregator of information, you can pull data from any number of Activplant installations, giving you the opportunity to create comparison spreadsheets, total values across facilities, or even prepare ranking reports across a fragmented supply chain.

The Insight for Excel add-in also provides a powerful wizard. The wizard has a set of selection screens that assist in creating new, or editing existing, Activplant enabled spreadsheets. Through simple configuration steps, the wizard guides you through selecting an Activplant server, choosing data, and setting timeframes, groupings, filters, and aggregations. All selection options and pick lists in the wizard are driven directly from ActivEssentials, meaning that the latest configuration options are always available and centrally managed within the ActivEssentials database.

With Insight for Excel-enabled spreadsheets, you can automate and link these in real-time to the plant floor. Whether your goal is to review specific machine operating parameters, support a Continuous Improvement event, or publish plant-by-plant operating performance, Insight for Excel can save you time, money, and effort.