Noob with questions about a huge project and best place for training...

[Cruxxix]

Hey all!



I'm pretty new to access DB and boy... is it kicking my butt!

I have a few questions...

Like I said I have a massive undertaking of a project to do. I want to build a centralized, computerized maintenance management system for my job. It's very intimidating and the courses I bought are almost to small for me to really get what I need to do. I feel like there has to be better training out there for access.

So... what I am really asking is,

1) Is Access good for such a massive job? Like... I'm trying to keep tabs on 500- 600 pieces of equipment that need lube services every 500hrs. So tracking service hours... incoming and outgoing equipment that someone else will be updating... other types of inventory such as parts, sea-cans, office shacks, etc... personnel contact list... CVIP/ insurance/ inspection expiry dates... And more...

I've tried finding some good info about this over the last few days and I can't really find any info. Just people saying that SQL on its own server is the way to go?

But I didn't see their reasons why...

I understand this is going to be lot's of tables, forms and when I'm ready queries and reports..... And this leads into my next question..

2) Is there a better place then Udemy to learn how to harness the power that is Access?!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and reply.

I appreciate any help that anyone can provide.

Best Regards,
~Cruxxix

[June7]

Access is certainly an appropriate tool for what you describe. Access has 2GB size limit which will hold a lot of data but not impossible to exceed.

Never heard of Udemy. There are many on-line tutorials, even some decent freebies. Google.

Review https://support.office.com/en-us/art...7-d254561f8bce

[Micron]

I certainly have an inclination as to what you're up against. While I used Access to mine such data, the GUI was built in Power Builder and probably resided on sql server (I never concerned myself with that part). Here's a link that you might find interesting about the company I retired from - note that I'm not promoting anything that is offered anywhere, but this might give you some insight as to how a maintenance culture can change due to the implementation of a CMMS

https://reliabilityweb.com/articles/...e_steel_manufa

Perhaps it's my experience with that CMMS that made it seem like an interesting article to me. Regardless, my message would be that given your statement, I believe you would be taking on a MASSIVE project in order to do it well. IMHO, it would not be a part time job during development and the likelihood is that ongoing support and development would be the future of such a project. I would not be surprised if it took you 1 or 2 years just to get something that you could use, and that's primarily because while the Access learning curve for this may not be real steep, it will be very long. I think the last thing you want to do is build something based on macros, so that will add learning vba code to the list of things to be learned.

I know that doesn't give you a whole lot of direction on where to learn. We all have our favourites, so there's no real cut and dried answer. There are tons of resources.

[orange]

@Cruxxix,

Access may very well be suited to your project. However, more than expertise in Access at this time, you really have to understand your requirements and ensure that these have been reviewed and accepted by those "needing" such a system. Also, knowledge of database concepts is critical to design appropriate tables and relationships. You may also want to develop a data model and test scenarios that can be used to create a blueprint for the database. As Micron has said, this is not trivial and the scope could prove to be larger than first anticipated. His link provides lots of info to be considered.

Good luck with your project.