The Findings in the Management Information Systems - Case Study Example

INTRODUCTION The main purpose of this report is to explain the findings in the management information systems that are used by the management of ACME GARAGE and give a recommendation of the most appropriate information system that can be used by the management to improve its performance after assessing it precisely and propose the appropriate solutions to the current business system that will actually help the organisation in improving its effectiveness and efficiency so as to achieve growth in its market. BUSINESS OVERVIEW Structure of the organisation Key Activities The key activities of ACME Garage is to offer car repairs and maintenance services to its clients and at the same time it takes part in selling car spare parts to its customers so as to help in facilitating efficient and effective services to its customers. Problems i) Stock outs of spare parts ACME garage business is facing the problem of spare parts stock outs sometimes of which ends up hindering the business operations since the customers are forced to wait till orders of the spare parts are made and delivered. This has made the business loose some of its customers. ii) No clear work flow The data and work flow in ACME garage is very complex since there is no clear data flow and work flow hence slowing down the efficiency and effectiveness within the organisation leading to high costs of operations and wastage of time that in return leads to loss of customers and suppliers. iii) Poor management ACME garage does not have a clear chain of command within the organisation. It is not clear who is answerable to whom. This leads to some activities not being carried out under supervision thus may lead to loss of property resulting to loss of business properties and underperformance by the employees of the organisation. iv) Human resource ACME garage lacks enough skilled labour hence leading to non-segregation of duties among the employees since kim is performing two different roles that are unrelated. Kim maintains the database and the same time he is responsible for invoicing and at the same time managing the inventory. This highly slows down the efficiency of employees within the organisation. v) Information system The ACME garage is currently using an out-dated system in carrying out its activities. At this era excel is not the most efficient information system for use by any business for purposes of running its entire operations in all departments since this information system is incapable of linking all departments in the organisation. ACME garage needs an integrated information system that will ensure that it achieves efficiency and effectiveness. ACME garage business is facing the problem of spare parts stock outs sometimes of which ends up hindering the business operations since the customers are forced to wait till orders of the spare parts are made and delivered. This has made the business loose some of its customers. Gaps i) Entry of new competitors: The external environment of ACME garage has a gap for the entry of new competitors in the market who will offer the same services to the clients thus intensifying competition that may lead into loss of customers to the competitors. ii) Technology trend: Technology keeps on changing dynamically thus ACME garage will be required to adopt the new technologies in order to compete effectively with its competitors. iii) Relationships with the suppliers: ACME needs to maintain good relationships with its suppliers in order to avoid stock outs, and get the spare parts at the best prices in order to compete well with the competitors. Opportunities i) New customer target: ACME garage should consider venturing into other markets by offering services to other customer targets such as motorbikes, commercial vehicles and other engine propelled machines. This will help the organisation in growing much further. ii) ACME can venture into supplying the spare parts: The ACME garage should consider venturing into the business of supplying spare parts to other garages within its region. This will help the business in solving the problem of stock outs of some spare parts and at the same time greatly contribute to its growth. iii) Open branches: ACME garage has an opportunity of expanding its business by opening new branches at different areas for the purposes of growth of the business. iv) Legal conditions: The existing legal conditions within ACME garage operation environment are favourable and that is why the business is able to fully comply with the tax regulatory authority by filling the tax returns fully in good time as per the regulations. v) Political regulations: Where ACME garage operates, there exists a stable political environment that is a plus for its growth businesswise. vi) Financial situation: ACME garage is currently not undergoing any financial constraints thus giving it an opportunity for growth. vii) Loyal customers: ACME garage has a good relationship with its customers due to delivery of services that satisfy the needs of their customers enabling the business to have loyal customers whose details are even maintained in the database under customer file for easy retrieval whenever a customer checks in for services. viii) Skilled staff: The employees of ACME garage appear to be well skilled more especially the mechanics that provide the quality services to the customers and that is why there are no bad feedbacks from the customers and there is also continuous attraction of new customers to the business. Kim also works skilfully and that is why he is able to efficiently maintain the database using the existing information systems of the organisation and also Grace has some management skills and that is why she is able to use the various management reports in managing her business efficiently ix) Physical Location: ACME garage is located at an appropriate place that is easily accessible by the customers and that is why there are no complains on the location of the garage. Functional decomposition of ACME GARAGE Daily work done and spare parts used from inventory Spare parts used inventory data Job book Aggregate data Management reports to owner of Garage (Gloria) ANALYSIS Current processes The current processes of ACME garage are based on the employees programs, department hierarchy and the software system. a) Employee programs A customer walks into the garage and Kim who captures the details of the customer in the customer file receives him/her. The customer is assigned one mechanic from the operations department to work on his or her car The mechanic diagnoses the car and fills in the job book on what spare parts are recurred and work to be done. A report is sent to Kim to check whether the spare parts are in stock .If they are out of stock; an order of the spare part is made to the suppliers to deliver the spare parts. Kim is in charge of the purchasing department, IT department and Sales department After fixing the car spare parts ,Kim invoices the customer basing on the job book record and the customer has a credit period of 30 days to pay the full amount .Failure to do so, he /she is subjected to a penalty of 10% of the charges. b) Department Hierarchy The departmental hierarchy of ACME garage is as follows: Top management: This management level is made of the owner of ACME garage who is Gloria. Middle level management: This level of management is made of the human resource management, sales manager, IT manager, finance manager and the procurement management who is Kim. Technical management: This management is made up the technically skilled employees of ACME garage who are the two mechanics: Bill and Ben. c) Software system ACME garage uses excel as its main software for all its operations of which is known to be inefficient with the current levels of technology globally. REQUIREMENTS DETERMINATION Determination of the requirements of any system can be done through: I. Interviewing and listening: The system analyst can conduct interviews on individual users and groups that use the system in order to know the challenges they are facing and whatever that they may need to be incorporated in the system II. Observing the users: Under this method, the system analyst will be required to take close observation on how the users are using the system in order to be able to identify flaws by him and be able to identify the possible improvements required for the new system III. Studying the business procedures and documents: The system analyst will be required to closely study the business by going through a serious analysis of the business procedures in order to be able to see whether there is need for a new system that will simplify the activities of the business. The analyst may go further and study the documents of the business in order to be able to know the kind of reports and forms that should be generated by the organisation for the purposes of coming up with requirements of the new system that is required. DATA FLOW DIAGRAM CONTEXT DIAGRAM Customer Supplier Order spare parts Customer repair order Receipts Management reports Garage manager (owner DATA FLOW DIAGRAM LEVEL 0 Customer order Receipts Spare parts changed Inventory data Formatted inventory file Formatted customers file and job book Daily customer Daily inventory reports And job report Management reports DATA FLOW DIAGRAM LEVEL 10 Aggregated data Formatted data Management reports LOGICAL MODELLING DECISION TREE COURSE OF ACTION RULES Employee Type Mechanic Office manager IT administrator Watchman Hours worked Basic salary x Overtime rate pay x Calculated hourly pay x LOGICAL MODELLING DECISION TABLE Condition subs COURSE OF ACTION RULES Employee Type Mechanic Office manager IT administrator Watchman Hours worked Action subs Basic salary x Overtime rate pay x Calculated hourly pay x DATA MODELLING (ER diagram) CUSTOMER Customer Id Name Address Car type CLASS DIAGRAM SALE Receipt no. Sale date REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATIONS ACME garage system will be required to have functional specifications for the inputs, behaviour and outputs. Some of the specifications are the calculators for use in calculations, technical details for analysis, data manipulation and processing what the system is required to finish. The behaviour will be facilitated by the specified cases used inputting data and outputting information. PROPOSED BUSINESS SOLUTION The proposed business solution will be required to produce anumber of forms reports and possess a user interface. Forms and reports generated by the system will be documents with predefined data to assist in the extraction or provision of some specific information .The forms and reports can take the form of scheduled reports and forms, key-indicator forms and reports, exception forms and reports, drill-down reports and form and Ad-hoc reports and forms. The user interface of the new system to bring about efficiency in the business of ACME garage it must be speedy in that it can complete tasks efficiently, accuracy so that there will be provision of the expected output. In addition the user interface must be satisfactory PROJECT FEASIBILITY Basing on the system requirement by ACME garage, it’s very important to carry out an assessment on the feasibility of the new project as follows: Economic feasibility: The development of a new system for ACME garage will be of financial benefit due to the advantage on the cost-benefit analysis. This is because only very few staff will be required to run all business department, increased speed, increased flexibility ,reduced errors, improved management planning and control, improved employee morale, good public image, high profit margins and new opportunities for growth will come about. Technical feasibility: The new system will help the business in overcoming the risks that are on its way such as stock outs .The new system will greatly solve the problem of integration with other systems such as banks so has to increase the business efficiency. IMPLEMENTATION The implementation of the new system in ACME garage will be done in the following stages: i) Coding: At this stage the physical design of the system specifications are turned into computer working codes for use in the operations with computers. At the same time the programs are documented. ii) Testing: The newly developed system is tested using the various strategies and is performed parallel with the coding process. The following tests must be done before the system is installed: inspection, walkthrough, desk checking, unit testing, integration testing, system testing and stub testing. iii) Installation: At this point the business will begin to change the organizational processes from the current system to the new system. There are various different methods to be adopted depending on the nature of the organization. For instance, ACME garage can either adopt, direct installation, parallel installation or phased installation. iv) Documentation: After a successful installation of the system and the users are convinced that all the specific requirements have been incorporated the system developers will be required to prepare a user manual for the new users v) Training: The employees of ACME garage will undergo training by the system developers on how to use the new system in performing their roles. vi) Support: Some developers will remain at the garage to continue giving support to the garage staff on areas that they do not understand fully. MAINTENANCE From time to time the management of ACME garage will make maintenance request to the developers on areas that they may need changes that can enhance its functionality, the requests are transformed to changes, and changes are designed and then implemented. Maintenance being the longest phase of the system development life cycle, they will have to review the entire system. Maintenance of the new system of ACME garage may be adaptive, corrective, perfective or preventive depending on the prevailing conditions leading to the request for maintenance. CONCLUSION In conclusion it’s very important for the information system developer to consider having strong internal controls in the system more especially in the finance department, sales department and the procurement department so as to curb frauds and errors that will lower the efficiency and the good public image of ACME garage. The information system should also have an excellent user interface since it will highly contribute to the acquisition of new customers, retention of the current customers and will highly motivate the employees to work since their work will be simplified and will be more exiting. If all of the issues are highly taken into consideration, there shall be an increase in profitability of the business as well as general growth at large. APPENDIX APPENDIX I: Structure of the organisation APPENDIX II: CONTEXT DIAGRAM Customer Supplier Order spare parts Customer repair order Receipts Management reports Garage manager (owner) APPENDIX III: DATA FLOW DIAGRAM LEVEL 0 Customer order Receipts Spare parts changed Inventory data Formatted inventory file Formatted customers file and job book Daily customer Daily inventory reports And job report Management reports APPENDIX IV: DATA FLOW DIAGRAM LEVEL 10 Aggregated Data Formatted data Management reports APPENDIX V: LOGICAL MODELLING DECISION TREE COURSE OF ACTION RULES Employee Type Mechanic Office manager IT administrator Watchman Hours worked Basic salary x Overtime rate pay x Calculated hourly pay x APPENDIX VI: LOGICAL MODELLING DECISION TABLE Condition subs COURSE OF ACTION RULES Employee Type Mechanic Office manager IT administrator Watchman Hours worked Action subs Basic salary x Overtime rate pay x Calculated hourly pay x APPENDIX VII: DATA MODELLING (ER diagram) CUSTOMER Customer Id Name Address Car type APPENDIX VIII: CLASS DIAGRAM SALE Receipt no. 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