From paper checklist to digital record - audit-ready in two months.
How a supplier with three sites moved its inspection documentation out of a forty-sheet Excel file into a system that passed the audit without a finding - and has freed up a full-time position ever since.
Published 14 January 2026 · 2 min read
How long does it really take to replace an Excel landscape that has grown over the years - and what does it deliver?
Records in minutes instead of days
Three sites, eleven inspection plans and a spreadsheet nobody wanted to touch any more. What came out of it was a system that documents the inspection itself, an audit passed - and a team that develops it further without us.
The starting point
The inspection documentation sat in a spreadsheet with around forty sheets that had grown over the years. It worked - as long as the one colleague who had built it was there. For an upcoming client audit that was not a sustainable state: records could only be pieced together by hand, and nobody could guarantee that a formula was not quietly calculating the wrong thing.
What was built
For two weeks we watched and took notes instead of asking for requirements. What emerged was this: at its core there are four things - inspection plan, inspection, deviation, corrective action. The forty sheets were views onto them. The real work sat in the approval rules, and that is exactly where we invested most of the time. After two months the system was in regular operation at all three sites.
Half of the requirements disappeared the moment we had the data model on the table.
What the client gets out of it
- The audit was passed without a finding - records at the push of a button instead of days of searching.
- Inspectors document on site directly in the system, no more retyping.
- The knowledge no longer hangs on one person and one spreadsheet.
- A fourth site can be connected without new licences.
- The internal team develops it further, we support them on call.
The calculation: a full-time position freed up
Twelve people across three sites previously documented, searched and asked around - on average 3.5 hours per person and week that have gone since the changeover (assumption from the process survey). That is 42 hours a week, a whole full-time position that is free again for customers and production.
At 35 euros an hour that is around 67,600 euros a year. At this size the investment is in the range of one process, about 40,000 euros (assumption from the price model) - amortised after around seven months. Preparing for the audit, previously two weeks of searching, is an afternoon today.
How it went on
Further development has been with the internal team since the second quarter. We support them as a sparring partner - on call, not as a permanent dependency.
- to regular operation at three sites
- 2 months
- findings in the audit
- 0
- gained per week (model calculation)
- 42 hours
- to amortisation (model calculation)
- 7 months
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