A jewelry outfit my friend works for is making rings. They will get an
order for, say, 2,000 rings, with so many of various sizes - men's go from 6
to 14 in half-size increments, and women's from 4 to 12 in half-size
increments.

The rings are processed in batches. Each batch may or may not have the
total required for any one size. Each size in each batch goes through a
seven-step process. There are always some rings lost to defects after each
step. Then several batches are put together for another two or three
finishing steps.

Right now, my friend is trying to keep track of all of this on pieces of
paper and a whiteboard. He'd like to track it electronically. The thought
was that if he created (meaning I do it for him!) a basic template that he
could use for each new batch, he could then make Excel track how many get
lost at each step, how many they have completed and how many they still need
for each size. Oh - and they would also like to be able to track man-hours
by employee for each step of the process.

Are we getting out of the realm of Excel and into Access here? I'm thinking
it might be dome in Excel - a front page with all the order information, an
input form that creates a new sheet to track each batch, and VBA formulas to
update the order summaries and totals across all batch sheets, old and new.
Or would I be diving into very deep waters?

Ed