Hello all, long time reader, first time poster!
I've developed a basic asset tracking system for the manufacturing factory where I work - it's just a proof-of-concept before management spend cash on a commercial solution. It's about to be trialled but I am getting cold feet!
Our operators are going to scan bar-codes as they work on components, logging what part they worked on, when & which task they performed.
At the moment this is done with a simple UI on a protected excel workbook. A macro will capture the bar-code scans, apply a time-stamp and save the data as a record on a hidden sheet (the children) - It's worth mentioning at this point that the computers on the factory floor have the basic MS Office package, this does not include Access, and giving them Access is not an option.
I then have a central Access DB (the parent) which links to all of these remote worksheets and merges them together via a Union query. This is then used for a dashboard and reporting.
My problem is that despite my best efforts to protect these child workbooks, it will only take one being moved, deleted or renamed to throw a massive spanner into the works. I will be keeping regular back-ups
Are there any other reasonably simple methods of getting data into an Access table without storing large quantities of my eggs in such vulnerable baskets? I was considering if it could be done with an HTML page connected to my DB - but I wouldn't know where to start or whether the users not having Access would be a road-block.
Any advice or suggestions gratefully welcomed!
Cheers
John
I've developed a basic asset tracking system for the manufacturing factory where I work - it's just a proof-of-concept before management spend cash on a commercial solution. It's about to be trialled but I am getting cold feet!
Our operators are going to scan bar-codes as they work on components, logging what part they worked on, when & which task they performed.
At the moment this is done with a simple UI on a protected excel workbook. A macro will capture the bar-code scans, apply a time-stamp and save the data as a record on a hidden sheet (the children) - It's worth mentioning at this point that the computers on the factory floor have the basic MS Office package, this does not include Access, and giving them Access is not an option.
I then have a central Access DB (the parent) which links to all of these remote worksheets and merges them together via a Union query. This is then used for a dashboard and reporting.
My problem is that despite my best efforts to protect these child workbooks, it will only take one being moved, deleted or renamed to throw a massive spanner into the works. I will be keeping regular back-ups
Are there any other reasonably simple methods of getting data into an Access table without storing large quantities of my eggs in such vulnerable baskets? I was considering if it could be done with an HTML page connected to my DB - but I wouldn't know where to start or whether the users not having Access would be a road-block.
Any advice or suggestions gratefully welcomed!
Cheers
John