I created a list of parts we used to produce a Bill of Material for projects. The parts table is 140 rows long consisting of 7 columns. Engineers use this list to copy the row associated with the part number and paste it into a separate workbook to create the BOM row by row.

I was asked to simplify the process by creating a drop down list on a form in a different worksheet so the engineers can select the part number and have the information filled in from the parts table. Using the same list I created a drop down list on a different worksheet and used VLOOKUP to complete the information in the other columns.

The problem we have now is the parts list is expected to grow to 250 parts. Attempting to find one part among many has become challenging. I would like to create nested drop down lists. The first drop down list should be by manufacture (Cisco, Juniper, Dell, etc) which would limit the second drop down list to functions (switch, router, firewall, etc) which would limit the third drop down list to series (ASR, ISR) and the forth drop down would only list the part numbers that meet the criteria associated with the previous three selected items (Cisco/Router/ASR).

All of the examples I have seen on various How To and Forums thus far have been very simple and required separate lists for each drop down list which would be burdensome to maintain as new devices are added to the various lists. Is there a better approach within Excel or have I reached the limits of what Excel can be used for?

Respectfully

Dennis