Suppliers
There are various suppliers but mainly are related to the warehouse. The warehouse orders goods if they don’t manufacture a product in their factories. The suppliers also supply electrical and gas appliance. However The Production manager with warehouse has a very close contact with other suppliers. The warehouse manger is responsible for ordering kitchen fittings, plumbing and electrical goods. But the Production manager only confirms the (missing items) orders by fax.
This is a structural diagram for Head office: -
Structural diagram for a showroom: -
Task 2
Handing
The information that is required is who will be buying the kitchen. Where the kitchens are going to come from or to be delivered. What components are needed? How the payment is going to make and how long will it take. So a client will be buying kitchens of their choice. This information is collected and sent to the warehouse where they find the product manually if some merchandise is not manufactured by the company they will purchase them from other companies. The warehouse manager will also be making a contact to the installation manager who signs the contractor and sends the appointment by post, a person will go to take measurement of the kitchen. He will report back to ensure the products have the right measurements. The client pays the payment of 25% to a sales person after the measurements are taken and every thing is cleared a kitchen will be installed.
The sales section will collect customer’s address and their name also a contact number on a computer in the showroom. And he sends an order form at home. The information is obtained from the order forms, which are given to the customers by post and returned when completed by a completion date. When the information is collected a clerk (from the forms) will input to a computer and this is given to the administration department, which looks at the data and check the order on a hard copy manually. The important details are the order, the addresses and the conformation with the client.
The process how an order is placed and how the company keeps in their standards is the order form is returned and the data is inputted in a computer and printed a hard company, which goes to the warehouse where a person manually searches to a product. The warehouse manager faxes the information to the production manager who confirms the order and sends it back to the warehouse manager by fax. The warehouse manager then contacts the suppliers by post. Finally the warehouse manager informs the installation manager who places the order to the clerk who purchases the order for any other appliances required and post them to the appropriate manufacturers. There orders include the customers name and addresses so the goods will be delivered to the customer’s house or place. The clerk also sends a conformation letter to the client for installation data also the receipt of the deposit. Also the price of 50% must be paid before all installation is completed. Computers make all the calculations from the purchase receipts and the order forms. All The calculations are made on a computer by the Accounts Department who collects the data on a computer and sends the invoices to the relevant departments or to the relevant people.
There are various outputs to the ordering process, which are issued. For example a printed copy is sent by post to the warehouse manager. The warehouse manager sends a fax to the production manager who sends the result back. The warehouse manager sends another letter to the suppliers. Then the warehouse manager sends a letter to the installation manager to confirm the appointment and the whole file is handed to the clerk.
This is a Data Flow Diagram of how the customer buys a kitchen from a showroom and companies process to get the order through.
This data flow diagram shows when an order is conformed this is how it is processed.
Task 3
ICT system used in Head office is linked in a LAN with a single server. Each department has at least one workstation. All workstations are linked with a fast laser printer. The department does have inkjet printer for any one off or confidencail documents. All information is stored in the server and the software’s are stored on the same server. The Accounts Department keeps the records of all financial transaction on the servers. The Human Recourses department has to keep the records of its entire staff personal details such as: -
- Personal detail (name, address, DOB, emergency contact)
- Job (which sector)
- Salary or hourly rate
- Commission earned
- Normal hours
- Availability
- Hours worked
- Medical plans
The system in a showroom is not very complex. The system contains various software and is linked with a modem. Three machines with in each showroom are linked with a LAN. The system has word-processing and other general office software’s. This system was for a Administration at the back but with out where customers are in the showroom, there are two computers which are stand alone and contain kitchen designed software’s. The computers have a TFT screen.
The system that is available is fine but needs a lot more work done on it. We can improve the system by allowing the computer that are in the showroom and are designed to make example kitchen design, for those to each linked to a LAN. This will ensure that if a system is down the records are safe. Also a rough plan or designing can be given to the installation department to see now a customer wants his kitchen. If there is any error occurs they can make the adjustments before hand. This will also benefit as the laser colour printers are used only one will be required. With these two computer load up a data base where the customers personal detail can be captured instead of the customer going to the processing clerk. As from the help of LAN the Administration department can capture the data. As the administration has a modem they can send this data to other department such as Accounts of the warehouse. This will save the company a lot of as well as time. as an other disadvantage of a stand alone system is that every thing has to be printed and this will save money for the company. But these computer allocated in the public might have danger of some one unauthorised person using the data and going on to confidential files, so a password will be given and users accounts can be made.
EDI
From the new technology the Best Recipe Kitchens is far behind to a modern technology such as an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), which allows the company to do the dealing such as ordering. It is a speedy way of ordering and bookings. The company can make a lot of money by fast systems. No matter what account the invoices can be transferred quickly and instead of passing they can just transfer the data with a click of a button. In a company if the stock goes low it can alert you or even order new stock. It can handle companies’ transaction with in there own budgets. This system is really accurate and can eliminate errors.
MIS
MIS (manager information system) can help managers to do their work more quickly and more efficiently. With this the information comes as a report to the managers. With this if the Best Recipe Kitchens has it the managers can work twice as fast in a way the production manager works like MIS. The production manager requires one or two more people then ha can work much faster. The installation manager can work by himself, as he has to hire contractors. But if we see with MIS he can work much faster with being more accurate. This can also allow the managers to work together as everything is supplied before as reports are made for the mangers so they can decide. This can help accounts manger as well as he can see how much is coming and going. As sales can be analysed in monthly graphs and all the departments can use graphs as well. As warning audio, video can warn if anything goes to a limit. They can even use what if queries to resolve any query to see the out come and if it comes low or to an inappropriate inquest, then they can find an alternative. As all managers can see each other’s work and their report and suggest improvement or to even come to a decision. They can create a graph on sale and make a report. This can promote some people in some sectors. This will make the work in the company more efficient.
