Microsoft Access Manufacturing Reviews & Insights

Score7.6 out of 10

842 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Microsoft Access are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Efficient Database Management: Users have praised the software for its ease of database system management, reporting, and analysis capabilities. Some reviewers found the reporting functionalities and data manipulation tools easy to use, requiring minimal training.

Enhanced User Experience: The graphical interface was highlighted as a key factor that improved user experience and made database management more efficient. Reviewers particularly liked the drag-and-drop components for designing forms and reports, eliminating the need for coding knowledge.

Customizability and Flexibility: Customizability was a key strength mentioned by users who emphasized the ease of creating entity-relationship diagrams and customizing forms and reports. Some users appreciated the software's flexibility in accommodating various business logic requirements and automation needs.

Microsoft Access Reviews

9 Reviews

ManufacturingIndustrial Automation1Textiles1Defense & Space2Medical Device4Business Supplies & Equipment1

Microsoft Access, Relationship databases for even the smallest players.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

April 8, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Many different use cases can be applied to Microsoft Access. More recently we have been using this to perform automatic joins when the input files will not change. This will eliminate the need for end users to utilize vlookups as they would normally. Since these types of joins can happen at any level of the organization, we are using access for the more localized locations where network connectivity isn't available and they can rely on a local database structure.

Pros

Combining files
Search large datasets quickly
Roll out to single or multiple locations with limited ease and implementation cost

Cons

Scalability between different versions
2GB Size limit before SQL migration needed
Lack of availability to access via the web without SharePoint
Corruption of files can happen, leading to VB being erased. Frequent backups are needed

Likelihood to Recommend

Can be utilized for large and small tasks, just depends on the use case. If the goal is to create a user frieldly front end for a SQL Database, this is the way to go. The size limitations can become an issue down the road, only if the system is not setup efficiently.

Joe Gill

Director, Systems Automation in Information Technology at Turtle & Hughes (Business Supplies and Equipment, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience

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Robust, simple, and best of all, probably already there!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

October 18, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Access is used on a 1 by 1 basis, dependent upon the person, their department, and their work. Predominantly, the tool was used with Sales Ops or Marketing for territory analysis, sales insights, product penetration in new markets, and other market research use. We did not have a lot of "cool new" data tools to use because the organization was locked into enterprise-level agreements. Typically, Access came into play when the data needed for manipulation surpassed Excel's capabilities.

Pros

Intuitive tool for anyone comfortable within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Life saver when Excel kept crashing, but you'll need to understand databases first so beware.
Amazing tool within existing product suite at work, meaning no cumbersome management approvals needed to use!

Cons

This doesn't have to do with the core function, but I wish it felt better aesthetically to use. I saw a lot of people moving toward tools like Tableau simply because they looked cool even though the user essentially only used it for basic functionality that would be better serviced in Access.
Having in-app tutorials would be really nice, especially for further education and better use of the tool.

Likelihood to Recommend

Great tool to use in a traditional organization where life is lived through the Microsoft ecosystem. It's a fast way to natively create depth in a platform such as Excel and set yourself up to glean better insights. Nice to not have to deal with API, custom build integrations, etc. It's just there. I love the tool, but if it weren't just there with each Microsoft Suite set-up, I'm not sure I wouldn't quickly switch to more cutting edge tools on the market today.

Verified User

Manager in Marketing (Medical Devices company, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Great Database Software from Microsoft

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 1, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Access is used for multiple databases throughout the organization. One main use is the bill of materials for projects. We use it to manage revisions of the bill of materials. Each revision has a table within the bill of material and we are able to run a comparison between revisions and produce a cover sheet which shows the differences. This is very useful in tracking changes and maintaining up to date documents. This also helps with processing document changes and it makes revising the bill of materials quick and easy. Also, Microsoft Access is used for our parts catalog in Autocad Electrical. There are multiple tables within the database and this is where we put part numbers and descriptions for these parts. This is used when a bill of materials report is run on a circuit diagram.

Pros

One good aspect of Microsoft Access is how the software can be customized for different applications. This is very useful because we are able to use this software for multiple applications, which makes it cost-friendly.
Another strong point of Microsoft Access is the skill required to customize, the amount of programming required is less than most other database programs. This is good for a beginner looking to get into database management.
Microsoft Access is one of the more cost-friendly database applications, and most of the time it comes with Microsoft Office. Other database programs can be expensive and not as easy to use.

Cons

One downfall of Access is some of the bugs I have encountered using this software. Sometimes our database becomes corrupt and we have to restore from a backup. This can be time-consuming and the worst part is sometimes work is lost if the database is not backed up for a couple of days.
Another issue I have encountered with Access is sometimes the database will think someone has it opened and it then becomes read-only. This causes issues if someone has to make a modification and it thinks someone else is working on it. It will tell you the last person who had it opened, but sometimes it is not correct.
Access also has some issues with performance on larger databases, it can take a little bit to open databases with a lot of data. It sometimes also freezes while loading some items.

Likelihood to Recommend

Microsoft Access is very useful for multiple applications but it is most useful in my case for managing bill of materials, and part databases for electrical components. It definitely makes managing and updating databases quick and easy.
Access has some issues, and I believe if you have very large databases, it can sometimes slow down and not be the best choice. Also, if you have very custom databases, with many macros running, it can be a bit slow.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (Industrial Automation company, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Access for Everyone!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 8, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Access is being used to run a wide variety of reports for both operations and accounting. There are numerous queries that have been set to help managers get data up to production and plant efficiency. It helps managers quickly analyze performance on the numerous jobs that are going on at one time.

Pros

Since Microsoft Access is a Microsoft product it is easy to use and relay data to and from Excel.
With the tools inside Microsoft Access, you can quickly establish the relationships between tables. It is easy to view the relationships between tables.
It is a robust tool that can handle large amounts of data without having to spend additional money on other reporting tools.

Cons

I would like to have within Microsoft Access a way to build dashboards without having to pull data into another program such as Excel.
I would like to see Microsoft Access with more filtering/shading tools to differentiate data.
It would be nice if it was a little easier to build report formats. Sometimes it is challenging getting boxes to line up and make the report better aesthetically.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited to build queries to pull meaningful data from various tables. It is very useful that you can visually build the relationships between tables. Access allows you to quickly copy existing queries and then modify them to get different views from the same data.

Lukas Sundahl, MBA

Accounting Manager in Finance and Accounting at Solutions Through Innovative Technologies, Inc. (dba STI Technologies, Inc.) (Defense & Space, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

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Microsoft Access review

Rating: 3 out of 10

Incentivized

October 10, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is the back end of an ERP system that we are using at our company. The ERP system keeps track of our inventory, sales orders, production, and invoices.

Pros

It is relatively easy to use. It behaves much like Microsoft Excel.
It is very powerful in that it has a lot of capability.

Cons

The user interface has not been updated in 10 years, when I used it for the first time. Given other products the user interface is awkward. It feels like you need to make many mouse clicks to perform tasks.
Setting up forms for the screen and for printing is hard to set up.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is not well suited for people who are not computer savvy.

Anthony Macadino

Vice President and Principle Project Engineer in Engineering at Photo Diagnostic Systems, Inc. (Medical Devices, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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The best friend of people who are not IT professionals, but suddenly need a relational database to be mastered, designed and implemented by yesterday!

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

August 31, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I utilize Access databases frequently, ignoring 'weird looks' given to me by IT professionals who consider anything less than Oracle not a true database, but some sort of a 'toy'. However, Access fits the bill perfectly in some cases. Back in 1996, I had to resolve a problem very quickly, by creating a 'tool' to keep track of problems encounters by buyers from the procurement department in ordering certain parts, like parts for old designs and currently unavailable due to obsolescence, or parts having an unacceptable long lead time. The need was for a relatively simple and small database, allowing recording of such problems, recording of the progress made by the Component Engineering department in finding a solution and the recording of the solution itself, when one was found. I selected Microsoft Access as a platform, since it appeared relatively simple compared to more powerful databases, and my proficiency in other members of the Office suite making the learning curve shorter. And it worked very well. The implementation took only three weeks and the results were very much appreciated by its users. I believe this database it is still in use.

Pros

An Access database can be designed and put to use rather fast, in order to answer an immediate need, even if the design must be done by someone with no previous exposure to Access. It can be modified/improved later on, without much impact on the users.
A relatively simple Access database does not require knowledge of any programming language. It can be implemented by using 'macros', which are of a 'point-and-click' type.
If a more complex application is required, Access is fully compatible with Visual Basic for Applications language, which is a object-oriented, even-driven programming language, designed by Microsoft specifically for utilization by all modules belonging to the Office suite.
Since the commonality of VBA across Office, Access databases can be made to interface with other Office applications, and in particular with Excel.
Access is easy to master, cheap, and allows easily the construction of aesthetically pleasing interfaces with the user, while remaining quite powerful. Due to these reasons, it yields itself to be sometimes used for the design of non-database applications, but specialized calculators.

Cons

It cannot accommodate as many records or as many concurrent users an Oracle or similar database can.
It is not as reliable as a database of 'industrial strength' is.
It does not work fast, particularly when when large amount of code was used for its design or when a relatively many users attempt to utilize it simultaneously.

Likelihood to Recommend

Microsoft Access is very suitable whenever the objective of the project is a database where:
1. The timeframe of the project must be short and the start of the project must be immediate.
2. Specialised personnel from IT department is not available, due to their own prioritization scheme.
3. The designer tasked with the design, implementation and deployment of the database, is a technically-oriented person in general, but having no previous knowledge of Access in particular.
4. The size of the envisaged database is relatively small, both in the number of records to be stored in it, as well in the number of concurrent users.
Microsoft Access is not suitable when:
1. The requirements are for an 'Enterprise' type of database, expected to acummulate over time a very large number of records (large manufacturing company, storing many parts numbers over the years).
2. The database is expected to be access by a very large number of users concurrently (e.g., a bank, accessed by numerous customers simultaneously).
3. The time taken by the execution for each transaction must be as small as possible.
4. The database must be of 'industrial strength', meaning very reliable, with no crushes and no corrupted records.

Fred Abraham, P.Eng

Lead Component Engineer in Engineering at DMJ Technical Services (Defense & Space, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

22 years of experience

View profile

Microsoft Access - opinions from a new user.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

August 29, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Microsoft Access as a database to keep contacts organized. It is being used only by me to address the many different sales and physician contacts I make on a regular basis.

Pros

User friendly - it doesn't take much work to begin using Microsoft Access
Keeps track of my contacts - If I need to quickly find a contact, it saves the information without having to be prompted every time. I always hit 'save' at the end of the day just to be sure, but I have never lost any information I have entered.
Easy to access - I can access on my desktop at work or on an app on my phone.

Cons

Rudimentary - it's a pretty basic software, which means when you open it up for the first time there doesn't seem to be a lot offered from the start, but once you decide your application for use, and implement it, it is pretty dependable.
Saving confusion - I was confused in the beginning about how to save information that I had just entered into the system. There is nothing that indicates that what you have entered in the database would be saved, but I have never lost information once it has been entered.

Likelihood to Recommend

Access is a great tool for organizing contacts. It would work great for a marketing situation, or just to keep track of contacts you deal with on a regular basis. It would be great if you could add a picture of a business card or something as well, but I have not explored enough to see if that is an option.

Verified User

Executive (Medical Devices company, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Solid software for smaller, non-critical data sets

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 6, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our users use Access to create forms that view and manipulate the smaller sets of data we keep. For example, rather than purchasing a full-fledged lab/test system, they created their own using Access. Other operations departments create the same types of content. There are many Access apps being used throughout our organization but they generally do not contain critical data.

Pros

The interface is simple enough where entry-level users can build a way to consume the data they need without much effort or training. Advanced users can create fairly robust apps for their teams to use.
The wizards are particularly easy for users to begin consuming data. In most cases, I don't have to get involved in developing Access applications unless they want specific data from one of our SQL databases that needs to be exposed.
In addition to being self contained data stores, Access has the ability to read external data as well. In many cases, all I have to do is write a view in one of our SQL databases and users can get the data they need without me having to constantly write sql queries or design reports for them.

Cons

Being that I also manage terabytes of actual SQL databases, I find that Access isn't great and accessing large amounts of data. Sometimes users ask for data sets that Access just doesn't deal with very well. I run in to performance issues and sometimes corruption issues with large data sets and complex apps.
This one isn't really the fault of Access, but it's something to consider from an IT standpoint...as a DBA, I'm by default, spoken and unspoken, I'm expected to be responsible for the safety of all the data in our organization. That includes these Access apps that are so easy for users to create and then neglect to place in a location that gets backed up. I have been chastised for not being able to protect data that I didn't know existed. So if you have data that is critical to the business, even if it's a small but volatile data set, then you might want to consider a full-fledged database solution.
It lacks the security features of more advanced database systems. Again, not a direct fault with Access, but users tend to feel they can put whatever data they want in these Access apps and don't pay attention to the fact that they could potentially expose data that doesn't need to be exposed.

Likelihood to Recommend

Access is well suited to small, non-critical data sets. For large and for data that the business couldn't do without, I would highly recommend spending the money on an enterprise class solution. Access is good for a single-user scenario, but is not very good as a shared app. There is more risk of corruption maintaining a shared-app due to potential version differences,etc. If you're short on development resources, this is a good way for users to build something quickly without having to wait for IT to buy or build something. So, Access is good at filling immediate/intermediate needs. For long term solutions, I'd prefer an enterprise class product.

Greg Goss

SQL Database and Business Intelligence Manager in Information Technology at Ten Cate (Textiles, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

View profile

Microsoft Exceeds All

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

September 15, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I'm using Microsoft Access to run data on existing customers. Microsoft Excel is great but for the purpose of turning dirty data, to clean data. Access is used to query data and run more clean/concise reports. When engaging with consumers, a much more direct approach is possible due to the amount of information that is at our hands. We run this data to directly engage with who we want, where we want, and about what we want.

Pros

Microsoft Access is compatible with Microsoft Excel and allows you to use both seamlessly.
The program can be used on both a PC and a Mac. Both are used in our company so it makes it very simple to translate data from one to another.
When cleaning through data, Access breaks down the layers that are being pulled out of the system to accurate depict what is being sought after vs what is not.

Cons

The product can be difficult to teach. I believe there should be more tutorials on the ins and outs of how to precisely use each feature.
The program tends to be very tedious at times. If you do not add an * it can mess up everything.
The depth at which data needs to be pulled in and how much is tough to comprehend.

Likelihood to Recommend

[Microsoft Access is well suited] When you're going through a list of products and you're specially interested in line items that are profitable, for customers on the west coast, metro area of LA and have been in business for 20 years. This is all possible in Access. You have to break it down. Once you do, you can send it through Excel and run graphs on the data to pull into PowerPoint.

I would recommend anyone who tends to gather a large set of data to use Access because it will allow your business to strip data down to its own benefit.

Verified User

Director in Sales (Medical Devices company, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

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The best friend of people who are not IT professionals, but suddenly need a relational database to be mastered, designed and implemented by yesterday!

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

August 31, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

An Access database can be designed and put to use rather fast, in order to answer an immediate need, even if the design must be done by someone with no previous exposure to Access. It can be modified/improved later on, without much impact on the users.
A relatively simple Access database does not require knowledge of any programming language. It can be implemented by using 'macros', which are of a 'point-and-click' type.
If a more complex application is required, Access is fully compatible with Visual Basic for Applications language, which is a object-oriented, even-driven programming language, designed by Microsoft specifically for utilization by all modules belonging to the Office suite.
Since the commonality of VBA across Office, Access databases can be made to interface with other Office applications, and in particular with Excel.
Access is easy to master, cheap, and allows easily the construction of aesthetically pleasing interfaces with the user, while remaining quite powerful. Due to these reasons, it yields itself to be sometimes used for the design of non-database applications, but specialized calculators.

Cons

It cannot accommodate as many records or as many concurrent users an Oracle or similar database can.
It is not as reliable as a database of 'industrial strength' is.
It does not work fast, particularly when when large amount of code was used for its design or when a relatively many users attempt to utilize it simultaneously.

Likelihood to Recommend

Fred Abraham, P.Eng

Lead Component Engineer in Engineering at DMJ Technical Services (Defense & Space, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

22 years of experience

View profile