Need Suggestions: Creating FMEA matrix from multiple inputs

I dont know how familiar the forum members are with Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) matrices so I will give a general overall description so just bear with me if you all already know.

FMEA matrix is a risk analysis tool typically used by those in the automotive industry. The vast majority of FMEA users create an Excel matrix with predefined column headers and add rows for the process steps they are evaluating in their business system. Depending on the complexity of the processes required to produce an end product these matrices can vary in row length. Thus, I come back to this forum for discussion and future help.

The manufacturing process at my facility is basically the same for every product we manufacture to produce the base product. After the product is manufactured, the Customer may opt to have us separate the product from the carrier of they my opt to do this themselves. This is where my quest for suggestions begins.

Our bare bones process is approximately 15 steps that do not change unless an improvement is required to resolve an issue in which case we alter the FMEA by editing or adding information. When a Customer requests that we do the product separation that typically adds another 4 process steps. We will also, depending on Customer requirements, send the product out to an external supplier and have additional processes added to the product such as forming or plating. While all this is easily handles using Excel to maintain a matrix the difficulty comes into play in that we have roughly 100 parts that require this documentation and if something in the main process changes requires the updating of 100 matrices.

With the help of a few of the members here, I have created a dashboard in the past that using offsets and vlookups, drew from various worksheets of individual inputs and posted that summarized information on a graph .
My question is, can a "dashboard" of sorts be created that will draw from multiple Excel tables and ranges that will create a single matrix of varying row counts with specific data in each row depending on the part number requested? This matrix would need expand or contract in row count, renumber the rows appropriately for each process step without leaving missing sequential process steps.

I've been able resolve 1/2 the issue with using a data table and vlookups.
Now what I need to know is can rows with no data in them be hidden and then unhide them when the vlookup has data for them?

Originally Posted by shg

Cross-posted at http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/general...le-inputs.html

Didnt realize they were the same forums.
I will update the MrExcel posting only.