Case Problems

Pine Valley Furniture

Alex Schuster began Pine Valley Furniture as a hobby. Initially, Alex would build custom furniture in his garage for friends and family. As word spread about his quality craftsmanship, he began taking orders. The hobby has since evolved into a medium-size business, employing over fifty workers.

Over the years, increased demand has forced Alex to relocate several times, increase his sales force, expand his product line, and renovate Pine Valley Furniture’s information systems as the company began to grow, Alex organized the company into functional areas – manufacturing, sales, orders, accounting, and purchasing. Originally, manual information systems were used; however, as the business began to expand rapidly, a minicomputer was installed to automate applications.

In the beginning, a process-oriented approach was utilized. Each separate application had its own data files. The applications automated the manual systems on which they were modeled. In an effort to improve its information systems, PVF has recently renovated its information systems, resulting in a company-wide database and applications that work with this database. Pine Valley Furniture’s computer-based applications are primarily in the accounting and financial areas. All applications have been built in-house, and when necessary, new information systems staff is hired to support Pine Valley Furniture’s expanding information systems.

1.       How did Pine Valley Furniture go about developing its information systems? Why do you think the company chose this option? What other options were available?

2.       One option available to Pine Valley Furniture was an enterprise-wide system. What features does an enterprise-wide system, such as SAP, provide? What is the primary advantage of an enterprise-wide system?

3.       Pine Valley Furniture will be hiring two systems analysts next month. Your task is to develop a job advertisement for these positions. Locate several Web sites and/or newspapers that have job advertisements for systems analysts. What skills are required?

4.       What types of information systems are currently utilized at Pine Valley Furniture? Provide an example of each.

 Hoosier Burger

                As college students in the 1970s, Bob and Thelma Mellankamp often dreamed of starting their own business. While on their way to an economics class, Bob and Thelma drove by Myrtle’s Family Restaurant and noticed a “for sale” sign in the window. Bob and Thelma quickly made arrangements to purchase the business, and Hoosier Burger Restaurant was born. The restaurant is moderately sized, consisting of a kitchen, dining room, counter, storage area, and office. Currently, all paperwork is done by hand. Thelma and Bob have discussed the benefits of purchasing a computer system; however Bob wants to investigate alternatives and hire a consultant to help them.

                Perishable food items, such as beef patties, buns, and vegetables are delivered daily to the restaurant. Other items, such as napkins, straws, and cups, are ordered, and delivered as needed. Bob Mellankamp receives deliveries at the restaurant’s back door and then updates a stock log form. The stock log form helps Bob track inventory items. The stock log form is updated when deliveries are received and also nightly after daily sales have been tallied.

                Customers place their orders at the counter and are called when their orders are ready. The orders are written on an order ticket, totaled on the cash register, and then passed to the kitchen where the orders are prepared. The cash register is not capable of capturing point-of-sale information. Once an order is prepared and delivered, the order ticket is placed in the order ticket box. Bob reviews theses order tickets nightly, and makes adjustments to inventory.

                In the past several months, Bob has noticed several problems with Hoosier Burger’s current information systems, especially with the inventory control, customer ordering, and management reporting systems. Because the inventory control and customer ordering systems are paper-based, errors occur frequently often impacting delivery orders received from suppliers and the taking of customer orders. Bob has often wanted to have electronic access to forecasting information, inventory usage, and basic sales information. This access is impossible because of the paper-based system.

1.       Apply the SDLC approach to Hoosier Burger.

2.       Using the Hoosier Burger scenario, identify an example of each system characteristic.

3.       Decompose Hoosier Burger into its major subsystems.

4.       Briefly summarize the approaches to systems development discussed in this chapter. Which approach do you feel should be used by Hoosier Burger?

Natural Best Health Food Stores

                Natural Best Health Food Stores is a chain of health food stores serving Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. Garrett Davis opened his first Natural Best Health Food Store in 1975 and has since opened fifteen stores in three states. Initially, he sold only herbal supplements, gourmet coffees and teas, and household products. In 1990, he expanded his product line to include personal care, pet care, and grocery items.

                In the past several months, many of Mr.Davis’s customers have requested the ability to purchase prepackaged meals, such as chicken, turkey, fish, and vegetarian, and have these prepackaged meals automatically delivered to their homes weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Mr.Davis feels that this is a viable option, because Natural Best has an automatic delivery system in place for its existing product lines.

                With the current system, a customer can subscribe to the Natural Best Delivery Service (NBDS) and have personal care, pet care, gourmet products, and grocery items delivered on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. The entire subscription process takes approximately 5 minutes. The salesclerk obtains the customer’s name, mailing address, credit card number, and desired delivery number. After the customer’s subscription has been processed, delivery usually begins within a week. As customer orders are placed, inventory is automatically updated. The NBDS system is a client/server system. Each store is equipped with a client computer that accesses a centralized database housed on a central server. The server tracks inventory, customer activity, delivery schedules, and individual store sales. Each week the NBDS generates sales summary reports, low-in-stock reports, and delivery schedule reports for each store. The information contained on each of these individual reports is then consolidated into master sales summary, low-in-stock, and forecasting reports. Information contained on these reports facilitates restocking, product delivery, and forecasting decisions. Mr.Davis has an Excel worksheet that he uses to consolidate sales information from each store. He then uses this worksheet to make forecasting decisions for each store.

1.       Identify the different types of information systems used at Natural Best Health Food Stores. Provide an example of each. Is an expert system currently used? If not, how could Natural Best benefit from the use of such a system?

2.       Using the Natural Best Health Food Stores scenario, provide an example of each system characteristic.

3.       What type of computing environment does Natural Health Food Stores have?