Excel has long been a staple for engineers, but it’s become outdated compared to modern solutions. By examining its real-world usage, we can uncover the hidden costs of relying on spreadsheets for engineering calculations.
However, what many businesses do not realize is that using outdated methods may be costing them even more. Read on to discover why investing in a smarter software solution provides a higher value.
In many industries, Excel is simply an application used to enter numbers and create tables. However, Excel also acts as a notation system for creating programs. When used in engineering production work, the complex spreadsheets created essentially become applications of their own. When building these complex spreadsheets, developers must have a clear understanding of the calculations they’re performing, the source of the input data, and any intermediary steps. Additionally, they need to ensure the final results are easily understood and usable by others involved in the process.
During the development process, there are a few key points where your team may accidentally incur costs by using manual spreadsheets:
For an engineering, procurement, and construction contract (EPC), the cost of developing a spreadsheet is directly billed to the customer. When a contractor develops a spreadsheet, they bill hourly for this work. Alternatively, when the project owner develops the spreadsheet, this costs them in time and labor.
While engineering schools teach metric values, many industries use standard U.S. units. However, unlike dedicated fluid handling programs like PIPE-FLO, Excel doesn’t automatically handle unit conversions or flag inconsistencies. Correcting these units manually can lead to expensive errors.
Several input values for your spreadsheet come from external standards and sources. For example, the inside pipe diameter depends on the pipe material, wall thickness, and customer specifications. Entering even one of these values incorrectly can significantly impact the accuracy of the calculated results.
Excel is not designed to recognize or flag calculation results which fall outside of industry-standard values. This limitation increases the risk of errors being overlooked, requiring senior engineers to manually review calculations. Not only does this pull top talent away from more valuable tasks, but it also slows down the process and uncovers errors late in the development cycle, leading to costly rework.
Fluid handling software, which is designed specifically for these use cases, can detect these errors and help prevent them from leading to costly issues.
The calculations should be documented in a standardized report. When teams spend months building custom spreadsheet systems, it not only wastes time but also drives up costs. Spreadsheets are often isolated in data silos, making it difficult for anyone outside the team to replicate and understand development processes.
When your team relies on a custom spreadsheet application for production, new employees must be trained to use it. Because this information is often siloed — only known by certain team members — time and resources need to be diverted from other projects to bring new employees up to speed. When this is a spreadsheet created in-house, or by a contractor, there is often a lack of external training resources, which further slows down the learning process.
PIPE-FLO, on the other hand, offers a robust training program with structured courses to quickly bring new users up to speed. This wealth of training resources available can significantly streamline your onboarding process, boost employee confidence, and ensure consistency across the team.
The developer of your in-house Excel application is typically the primary source of technical support for new and existing users. Since the developer is usually an experienced engineer with company insights, this is an expensive use of a valued resource. As the user base increases, the developer is often asked to add new features to the existing application, leading to feature creep, which increases all the costs associated with the application.
As mentioned above, when users rely on the developer for support, it can slow everything down and increase costs. However, when users attempt to modify the spreadsheets themselves instead, this can lead to even more problems.
Because Excel is a widely used and familiar application, many users may feel equipped to modify a spreadsheet’s internal workings themselves. These DIY modifications can lead to version control issues, where untracked changes create inconsistencies, conflicts, and errors. This becomes especially problematic when multiple offices or teams are involved, making it difficult to maintain a consistent, reliable system.
Using incorrect or non-approved equipment in your fluid system design can lead to inaccurate results and inefficiencies. For example, allowable pipe sizes, schedules, valves, and fittings are specified in the client’s defined pipe class, and entering data for non-approved equipment can significantly affect the design’s accuracy. In systems designed with Excel, these issues are often discovered too late, leading to costly rework.
When using Excel for sequential design tasks, engineers often need to re-enter data manually, increasing the risk of transcription errors or incorrect unit conversions. In contrast, PIPE-FLO allows seamless data integration. Once your system is modeled, data flows effortlessly through subsequent design stages, making design iterations faster and less prone to mistakes. You can also import CAD model files, making transitions smoother and saving you time and effort.
Using Excel across multiple applications makes it difficult to visualize how all the elements of your system work together. Without a centralized view, engineers often struggle to understand the full picture, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for optimization.
PIPE-FLO, however, offers engineers a comprehensive, centralized view of the entire system. With PIPE-FLO, you’re not just designing—you’re creating a lifecycle system reference model. This model evolves from “As-Calculated” to “As-Built,” “As-Operated,” and beyond, allowing for smart simulations that reveal how the system performs over time. This holistic view ensures your design, operation, and performance align with expectations throughout the system’s lifecycle.
Although Excel has been a staple in the engineering world, its limitations often result in costly errors and inefficiencies. Implementing an industry-leading fluid handling software such as PIPE-FLO can save your business valuable time and resources with its advanced functionality.
