Is Excel good enough for lean tracking?

For a small team with a few projects, yes: one shared file with the problem, baseline, target, owner, due date, status and savings for each project works. It stops working when people keep their own copies, nobody is reminded of due dates, or leaders need a roll-up across areas.

How long should I run the old spreadsheet and the new system together?

Agree the end before you start: a fixed number of cycles, such as four weekly cycles or one full audit cycle, whichever is longer for that file. During that time make every entry in the new system and only check the old file, then make it read-only. Running both without an end date is a common way for a move to stall.

Which spreadsheets should I leave in Excel?

Leave one-person models and one-off analyses, such as a changeover time study or a cost model, where nobody needs reminders or a shared history. Move the trackers that many people fill in or read, such as audits, action logs, kaizen trackers and skills matrices. Retire files that duplicate another or feed no decision.

How much history should I load into the new system?

Load the open items and the recent past, such as the last audit cycle or the last 12 months, so people see their current work and a trend. Keep older records as a read-only archive file for as long as your records policy requires, rather than loading data you will not use.

What should I measure to know the move worked?

Work out two or three numbers from the old file before you switch, such as the share of audits done on time, actions open past their due date and the time the weekly report takes. Work them out the same way after one full cycle on the new system and show the team the change.

Method guide · Kaizen and continuous improvement

Moving from Excel to one system: a checklist

Short answer

Moving from Excel to one system works sheet by sheet, not all at once. List every file with its owner, who reads it, how often it changes and the decision it feeds. Mark each one move, keep or retire, clean the data of the ones that move, pilot one area, and run the old file and the new system side by side for a fixed number of cycles. When the new system has held every entry for that long, make the old file read-only and archive it.

Step 1: list every sheet before you move any

Many plants have more trackers than anyone remembers: the ones in the shared drive, the ones on a supervisor's laptop and the printed forms that someone types up on Friday. Spend an hour with the people who use them and write one line per file. A shared sheet with one row per file is enough.

The six things to write down for each file (the example row is illustrative)
Question	Why it matters	Example
Who owns it, and who edits it?	A file with no owner will not be moved by anyone, and one with five editors holds five versions of the truth.	Quality engineer owns it; three supervisors edit
Who reads it, and where?	The readers decide what the new view has to show. Operators who read it on a board need a screen at the board.	Plant manager on Monday; team leaders at the huddle
How often does it change?	A daily tracker needs a fast way to enter data on the floor. A quarterly one can be uploaded.	Daily
What decision does it feed?	If no decision depends on it, it is a candidate to retire, not to move.	Which audit findings get an action this week
Where does the data come from?	Typed in by hand, copied from another file or pulled from a system. Copied data should be connected, not retyped.	Typed in after each audit
What breaks when it is wrong or missing?	Ranks the files by risk, so the pilot starts with one that matters but will not stop production.	Late actions on safety findings

Step 2: decide keep, move or retire for each sheet

Not every spreadsheet should move. The test is what the file is for. A tracker that many people update and several people read, and that needs reminders, history and a roll-up, belongs in a system. A one-person calculation does not.

A rule of thumb for each file
Verdict	When it applies	Examples
Move	Several people enter data or several people read it, someone has to chase due dates, or you need proof that a check was done and when.	Audit checklists, action logs, kaizen trackers, skills matrices, daily issue boards
Keep in Excel	One person builds it, it is a model or a one-off analysis, and nobody needs to be reminded of anything.	A changeover time study, a cost model, a one-time Pareto analysis
Connect, do not retype	The numbers already live somewhere else and the sheet only copies them into a chart.	KPI sheets fed from other files
Retire	No decision depends on it, it duplicates another file, or nobody has opened it in a long time.	The second copy of last year's tracker

If you cannot decide, ask who would notice first if the file disappeared. If the answer is nobody, retire it.

Step 3: map each file that moves to one module

A file that moves goes to one place, not two. Common matches: audit and 5S checklists to Audit Management, kaizen and project trackers to Kaizen & Projects, the idea box to Idea Management, skills matrices to Competency Management, action logs and issue boards to Daily Issue Management, and KPI sheets to KPI Dashboards. Moving from spreadsheets and paper covers the upload, connector and sign-in options for each, and LeanSuite vs spreadsheets and paper compares them job by job.

If one workbook does several jobs on separate tabs, treat each tab as its own file. A tab that scores audits and a tab that tracks their actions often move at different times.

Step 4: clean the data before you load it

A new system keeps whatever you put in it, mistakes included. An hour of cleaning on the file you are about to move saves weeks of explaining odd numbers afterwards. Do it on a copy and keep the original.

One row per record. Split merged cells and delete blank rows and subtotal rows inside the data.
One column per fact. A column that holds a name, a date and a comment together has to be split.
One date format, written the same way everywhere, and numbers stored as numbers, not as text with units in them.
Names of people, machines and areas spelled one way. Use employee IDs and equipment IDs where you have them, because 'J. Smith' and 'John Smith' are two people to a computer.
Fixed lists in place of free text for status, area, shift and cause, so the same thing is not written five ways.
Duplicates removed, and rows that cannot be traced to a real person, machine or date set aside.
Formulas marked. If a column is calculated, note the rule, because the new system will work it out and you will want to check the first results against the old ones.
A cut-off for history. Load the open items and the recent past, such as the last audit cycle or the last 12 months, and archive the rest as a read-only file.

Step 5: pilot one area, and write down the baseline first

Start with one area and one file, the same logic as the 1-1-90 method: one area, one pain point, 90 days, then expand. The 90-day pilot is built around that. Before the switch, work out two or three numbers from the old file so you can compare later, for example the share of audits done on time, how many actions were open past their due date and how long the weekly report took to put together.

Pick the people who will use it every day before you pick anything else. A file moves only if the people who fill it in can do so at the point of work, on a phone or tablet, without walking to a desk.

Step 6: run old and new together for a fixed time, then retire the file

Running both for ever is a common way for a migration to stall. Agree the end before you start: a number of cycles, such as four weekly cycles or one full audit cycle, whichever is longer for that file. During that time the new system is the one where entries are made, and the old file is only checked.

1
Set the exit test
Write it down: every entry for the period was made in the new system, nothing was added to the old file, and the first reports match the old ones or the differences are explained.
2
Check once a week
Look at the modified date of the old file. If someone has edited it, find out why. Usually something is missing in the new form, and that is the thing to fix.
3
Make the old file read-only and rename it with the date
Move it to an archive folder and keep it for as long as your records policy requires. Remove the shortcut from the shared drive so nobody opens it by habit.
4
Tell people where to go
Put the new location in the place people used to look: the team board, the huddle agenda and the template list.
5
Compare with the baseline
After a full cycle, work out the same numbers as before and show the difference to the team. If nothing improved, find out why before moving the next file.

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This page is the short version. These guides cover each part in full.

All our articles on this subject are in the kaizen and continuous improvement topic.

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