Radovan Slíž · WorkSys.Space · 11/08/2026
The most used integration tool in manufacturing is Excel
It is not any platform. It is Excel and a person retyping numbers from one system into another. And when that person leaves, the integration leaves with them.
The most used integration tool in manufacturing is not any platform. It is Excel and a person who retypes numbers from one system into another.
I see it in almost every company we visit. A system for production, a system for energy, a system for maintenance, and between them a spreadsheet into which somebody manually transfers numbers every morning or every Monday. Nobody calls it integration. It is usually simply called by the name of the person who does it.
I understand how it comes about. On the day it was needed for the first time, retyping was the fastest solution. And then it stayed.
The real price of retyping
What is interesting is what shows up when you look closer. The price is not that person's time, that can be counted and tends to be surprisingly small. The real price is that a mistake in the retyping is found only at the end of the month, when the report no longer adds up. And one more thing: the person with the spreadsheet tends to be the only one who really knows how the systems relate to each other. When they leave, the integration leaves with them.
The last such spreadsheet we met was in photovoltaics reporting. A technician manually exported data from the billing meter every month and assembled the report from it, month after month the same concentrated work where no mistake is allowed. After connecting the meter to the WorkSys.Space platform, the report goes out by itself. The story is not interesting because of the saved time. It is interesting because the mistake no longer has a place to happen.
A more honest map of the company
So when somebody asks me where to start with digitalisation, I stopped answering with a list of systems long ago. I rather ask how many spreadsheets like this live in their company. It tends to be a more honest map of the company than the org chart.
Related on this site:Case study: when the meter reports by itself