Excel and Python - Flexibility and Power

I once heard a colleague say that Excel was "a necessary evil in companies." When I asked why he made that statement, he said that, unfortunately, many people are reluctant to run their analyses on dedicated systems and prefer to use Excel—even because Excel is a very versatile tool.

At that time, Excel still offered few tools for data analysis; if I'm not mistaken, the "Data Analysis" option and the Solver Add-in were all available.

You've certainly heard the phrase: "Still doing this in Excel?" or even, "You have a Ferrari in your hand (referring, for example, to an APS – Advanced Planning and Scheduling system) but you're using a pop car (referring to Excel)."

But can we say that Excel is so limited today? After Microsoft's partnership with Anaconda (an open-source Python distributor) in 2023, we can say NO. Route optimization (a core functionality of a TMS) or demand estimation and resource optimization (core functionalities of an APS) are now easily performed in Excel.

In the video below, I show the step-by-step process for creating a simple tool for demand prediction (using the SARIMA model) and a route optimizer based on the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP).

The Python and Jupyter scripts are public and available on my Github:

https://github.com/Ldsantos1/Python-in-Excel