Used Books As Inventory example essay topic

System Investigation The Crack Monkey Bookstore has been in business for about six months and wants to expand to the Internet to help move inventory. This bookstore will be dealing in collage schoolbooks only, both new and used. We will start to implement this system by following the Systems Development Life Cycle by starting with the System Investigation. Feasibility Study Presently we are a local bookstore located in Mesa that has to rely on both word of mouth and local advertisement for business.

The books are stored in the back of the building on bookrack's in alphabetical order. The Crack Monkey Bookstore has been approved for a 150,000-dollar loan form the government to make these and other improvements. Some of the other improvements are: enlarging the warehouse, redesigning the front of the store and changing the display area. We are hopping to both increase sales and help maintain a more accurate inventory of our books, which will increase our productivity and cash flow. Organizational Feasibility This proposed system would help the store, by increasing the sales and maintaining a more dynamic inventory. With this system in place the hopes of the owners are to be able to expand through out the valley.

Economic Feasibility This system will help in the moving of books to decrease on hand inventories. It will also reduce manpower needs with a more accurate inventory system. No need of a large filing cabinet system to keep track of paper flow. With the new system we will be able to reach more customers there by increasing revenues. Technical Feasibility This would put the bookstore in competition with other bookstores that are already on the web, but with our bookstore being local there will be a faster delivery time.

Getting the hardware or software to start this is not a problem with today's technical knowledge. Operational Feasibility Being that this is a small business and the owners run it, the acceptance of the new system by the employees should be no problem. Management will support this new system with open arms, being that this is what they want. Suppliers will like the new system for receiving new orders, and the customers will be able to shop from home to get books instead of going to the bookstore.

These things found in the investigation are just a few things that are needed to decide whether to up grade their current system or not. System Analysis The organizational analysis or the information systems requirements of the company will be broken down into the needs of the various departments. Then the system will be networked together to integrate the company as a complete information system. Present System Currently there is no E-business system at the bookstore. That is one of many reasons that the Crack Monkey Bookstore is looking into E-business systems. Most of the store's information is a paper trail that requires a lot of time and effort to either find or go back and fix any errors.

At the warehouse, along with all the books, is file cabinet after file cabinet, which keeps all of the records for the warehouse inventories. In the accounting / personnel office, there is two file cabinets: one for employee records and the other for accounts receivable and accounts payable. There is another filing cabinet in the store which contains customers records such as addresses, phone numbers, etc., so we are able to contact them when either the order is filled or when we find a requested book. Management is designing the new system with emphasis on ease of use so that the labor-intensive duties of everyday filing and bookkeeping are both easy and more efficient. Functional Requirements Analysis The new system will consist of five main sections: 1 Warehouse 2 Accounting 3 Internet 4 Point of Sale 5. Resources Warehouse The warehouse shall be the center of most activities.

Duties range from receiving and shipping inventory to properly identifying storage locations for easy retrieval. This function includes the shipping and receiving not only of new stock, but also of customer point of sale activities. It must be fast, accurate and efficient in order to maintain a sharp business edge over competition. Inventory management has two sections: stock picking / inventory replacement and shipping / receiving. Both will require inventory software as well as a tie-in to the customer database.

Hardware requirements are: Bar code scanners, permanently mounted for the shipping and receiving area and mobile RF scanners for the stock pickers and inventory replacement personnel. Additional shipping / receiving hardware includes standard PC I / O terminals, and printers for shipping labels. AccountingThe accounting software is the center of the business. It will require standard accounting software, and shall operate as an immediate update system. Point of sale data shall directly access inventory. When a sale is made dollars and taxes are calculated and logged, inventory is reduced and marked as pending.

When the picker has removed the book from its holding area, the item is marked as "picked waiting for delivery". If the book is shipped, the item is marked as delivered when the shipping label is printed. If a book is purchased, dollars and tax are calculated and logged; inventory is increased and marked "pending"; and once the picker has placed the item for storage the item is marked "stored and available for sale". Accounting will require a PC terminal and printer at a workstation. Internet Internet access shall require a homepage with links to several different pages, depending what the customer wants to do. A "buy" page would reference the buying requirements; a "sell" page would reference the selling requirements; and a "research" page would assist in finding and ordering books not available locally.

An "employment opportunity" page would also be available if required. Internet functions would allow customers to check inventory and secure the books they want. They can buy or sell online new or used books, as inventory is available. Internet is directly tied to inventory and customer data files. Hardware required would be a PC terminal with modem to an Internet provider and software to interface to the existing customer database and accounting department. Point of Sale The point of sale will be located in the front of the store, and requires a permanently mounted bar code scanner, a telephone, credit card data entry terminal, and a cash register.

This position shall perform all point of sale functions: buy, sell, credit, and debit. Direct access to the customer database is required, as well as communications to the warehouse for order pick up as needed Resources The Resources department is a vital part of the business. It functions to predict the buying trends of existing customers. This utilizes data mining to record and analyze data of existing customers' buying habits referenced to local programs offered at school. When a customer enters into a course of study, the use of specific books could be anticipated, and a program established to provide these books at the correct time and at a reduced rate for the life of the program. This would create a partnership with the customer for a long-term relationship.

With the added benefit of being able to resell the used book at a reasonable price, the bookstore provides a cost-saving program to the financially strapped student, while at the same time making a reasonable profit for the store. System Design Point of Sale The point of sale located at the front of the store is the heart of the business. It has two major functions: buy and sell. All customer interactions are handled from this position. A cash register and credit card machine are the workhorses of the business. Help resources are also available from this position, incorporated within a touch screen and assisted with a keyboard and scanner for input.

Buy During a customer buy operation, the local inventory can be searched by the ISBN number, book title, author, class, customer ID number, or class number, example: CIS 319. The customer can ask for help finding a book. The customer is asked if he or she belongs to the book club, and his or her personal account number is entered. Once the data is entered, inventory is checked.

If the book is on hand, the standard list price, our sell price, plus tax, and total dollars are shown. Find If the book is not available locally, a search is done first at other local resources, and a delivery estimate is given, along with the price and discount if possible. New Member If the customer is not a member of the club, additional sales questioning begins. The business' object is to supply the customers throughout their entire schooling period with the correct books, new or used, for their specific class schedules, sell it at a discount, and deliver it on time. There is an option of returning the book when the class is finished. If there is a future market, we will buy it back at a standard reduced price of 50% based on their original purchase price.

Return If the customer is returning a book, the database is again checked to see if that book can be used in the future. If it can, a green banana flag is shown at the P.O.S. terminal, and the return proceeds. If it cannot, a red banana flag is shown at the P.O.S., and the customer is given the bad news. If the book has a future, an inspection of the book is performed, and an agreed price is set. If the customer wishes to establish a book program, a terminal is provided for him or her to enter the proper data.

Basically, this is just an Internet connection to the Crack Monkey Bookstore home page. The Warehouse System The system design for our warehouse will have to be able to handle three separate functions receiving, shipping, and inventory location. We will have one main terminal and two hand held RF scanners to handle locating and pulling of the orders that come in for shipments. The main terminal will be linked to the RF transmitter and receiver, while also being used for inventory control functions. As for the two hand held RF scanners one will be mounted to the forklift and the other will be used for inventory and cycle count actives. The Main Terminal The main terminal will be a touch screen.

There will be three main functions shipping, receiving and carryout order processing. It will be linked to our printer and RF transmitter. The printer will be used for printing both pick order sheets and bar code labels. The pick order sheet will display the book that was ordered and the location that the book is stored. It will also have a bar code on it with all of this information to help speed up the data process and the inventory functions.

Here at TRW we have this type of pick order system with all of this information. Getting the software for this should be no problem. One of the main reasons that we need the main terminal is to help make sure that we stay in FIFO order and to conduct searches for both inventory and shipping logs. The RF Scanners The two RF scanners will have both, a screen as well as a keypad. The keypad is for the times that the bar code scanner cannot read the label or when you need to change information. While one of these scanners will be mounted to the forklift.

The other will be for the personnel to carry around for the filling of orders on the lower locations, or for when they are cycle counting the warehouse inventory. A cycle count is were you match what the database has as far as the inventory to what is physical in the inventory and when they match everything is great, but when they don't then the real fun starts. We here at The Crack Monkey Bookstore feel that the RF scanners will help to reduce the problem of having any mistakes. Because if the inventory in the warehouse is off, then the accounting department will be having problems keeping the book on and that will be a BIG PROBLEM. AccountingThe accounting department will be responsible for keeping track of all the daily transaction records. This includes all P.O.S. transactions, inventory purchases, and capital expenditures such as utilities, building rent, and other bills.

The department will have to maintain a large database for researching customers, suppliers, employee payroll, taxes and other information. The accounting department will need to have a P.C. terminal linked to the warehouse. This will enable the department to make internal transactions in real time with inventory and point of sale. The terminal will have a fast clock speed, 1 ghz, in order to process the daily transactions. It will process the online billing with the credit card companies. Return credit and account credits for our customers.

This department will need a printer to print receipts for our creditors, invoices for our suppliers, stock requisitions for the warehouse and vendors. This department will also need to print and maintain the payroll for our employees this includes tracking vacation days, sick leave, and raises. Research / Internet In the systems design stage for our new bookstore, the concept for our Research / Resource department that we developed is that we will have one employee with the sole responsibility of ordering new books to keep the warehouse stock up to date. This position will also include researching databases connected with colleges and universities to keep the necessary textbooks in stock. The hardware that our researcher will be provided with will include a computer that will enable him or her to connect with a database. We will be able, with our hardware, to deliver these books to the students well before their courses start.

Our hardware will be able to handle the Internet capabilities that we require. All of the software that we will use to help our end-users will be out-soured to meet the needs of our system requirements. Maintenance, Evaluation, and Evolution Before the new system is actually running and the doors open for business, a system test run will be done. One of the primary concepts held by our founders is to be open to new ideas.

These new ideas precipitate success by keeping our primary systems current and user friendly. This concept is classified as maintenance, and requires a constant evaluation of our processes to be sure the daily functional operation matches our company objectives. This basic concept admits that nothing is perfect, and that we get smarter with experience. Maintenance allows us a method to modify the existing systems to incorporate the wisdom of experience into our business. This learning curve is a normal result of personal experience. Unfortunately, this basic business requirement is usually a frustrating area of many businesses that cannot or are unwilling to change for the better as needed.

Inherent in our maintenance system is the constant evaluation of our present systems. This evaluation will lead to timely changes or modifications to the existing system. During this trial run, several different people will be asked to use the proposed systems: to run a department, or to be a customer to buy, sell, research, and order books for future classes. All areas of the system will be tested from P.O.S. to Warehouse inventory, stocking, and picks. Accounting procedures will be checked: credits, debits, discounts, tax, and returns.

The ease of customer use of our Resources Program to help find and make no-hassle special orders with unique shipping arrangements is most important. Notes will be taken, and ideas for improvements submitted and reviewed. These ideas are to be implemented ASAP for quick resolution of any problem areas. System ImplementationTrainingTraining is an important process in large businesses and corporations where many employees are involved in getting to know and understand new E-business systems. However, in our Crack Monkey Bookstore, where we only have a few employees, our training process will be quite simple. Since our employees already know our day-to-day operations, it should be easy to train them on the job with only a few minutes of down time.

As far as our new web site is concerned, any user who logs on will be given the choice of taking a tour of the web site and will be trained on each individual function. This is standard for a first time user of any web design. Conversion Method Our bookstore has a paper-work system in place now. To convert over to our new system will be an easy task. As stated in the training section, our employees are knowledgeable in the present system, and with the training in place, we will use the direct cut over, or plunge approach. However, we will keep our paper system as a back up until we are confident that all of the bugs, if any, will be taken out of the new program.

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