The problem: the spreadsheet nobody has time to fill in
In many plants, the production spreadsheet is still fed by hand. Someone walks past the machines, writes down counters, temperatures and downtime, and later types it all into Excel. It takes time, arrives late and invites typing mistakes. By the time the numbers show up, the decision they could have supported is already gone.
The irony is that the data already exists: it lives inside the PLC, updated every moment.
What changes when Excel talks to the PLC
With the spreadsheet connected straight to the PLC, values come in on their own:
- Counters, temperatures, pressures and alarms appear in the spreadsheet with no typing.
- Shift reports are ready at the end of the shift, with the machine’s real numbers.
- Process engineers test ideas and follow adjustments in a tool they already know.
- The spreadsheet can also send values to the PLC, such as targets and parameters, with control over which tags accept writes.
For many companies this is the first step into Industry 4.0: affordable, quick and with no equipment replaced.
How Axzon solves it
AxPLCcomm is software developed by Axzon that reads and writes data from the leading PLCs on the market (Siemens S7, Modbus TCP, Rockwell EtherNet/IP and OPC servers) and delivers it straight into Excel. The same product makes the data available over SQL, for Power BI, SCADA and the cloud as the project grows.
If you would rather not do it yourself, Axzon’s automation team builds the solution for you: it identifies the data you need, configures the communication and delivers a working spreadsheet.
Try AxPLCcomm free for 90 days with every feature (within the trial limits), or request a quote for our team to build the solution in your plant.