Long Drive Manufactures Golf Equipment Executive Information System - Assignment Example

EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM Table of Contents 1.0. Introduction 3 2.0. Problem Description 3 2.1. Problem Background 3 2.2. Problem Statement 3 2.3. Assumptions 3 2.4. Using EIS 4 2.4.1. What is EIS? 4 2.4.2 Why to use EIS in this problem? 4 2.5. System Description 7 2.6. Development Schedule 7 3.0. EIS Analysis 10 4.0. EIS Specific Requirements 11 5.0. Determination of Information Needs 14 5.1. Managing Director Needs 14 5.2. Critical Success Factors 15 6.0. EIS Design 15 6.1 Structural Perspective 17 6.2 Development Process 19 6.3 User-System Dialog 20 7.0. EIS Prototype 20 8.0. Conclusion 21 1.0. Introduction The purpose of this project is to help the company meet its goal and target’s without sacrificing quality. It also is aimed to be more cost effective and would eventually boost the company’s production. This would also give managers real time data for business decision making and not be dependent on reports which sometimes if not always delayed and inaccurate. Having an automated system to gather reports is accurate and can be extracted at any given date and time as per need or defined by the user. 2.0. Problem Description 2.1. Problem Background A company called Long Drive manufactures golf equipment and has expanded its operations to twice its size in the last year. A new factory to produce the equipment has been running for a month. Now the company wants to employ three additional people to manage the sales and distribution. When the company was small it was easy to keep track of the financial position of the company and compare itself to its competition. However, now the managing director needs improved access to information to help the company minimize its costs and be profitable in the long term. 2.2. Problem Statement Expanding the company’s activities make it hard to access and manage information especially about the current financial position of the company in order to compare it to its competition. In order to minimize the cost and increase the profit in the long term proper information system needs to be installed. A recommended system is Executive Information System (EIS). 2.3. Assumptions - Using this system would provide managers accurate information in real time and would give them enough leverage to make the necessary decisions to meet the demands of clients. - Improve business results by meeting target production - Executives can focus more on business needs for further expansion - Executives will have more time in strategizing their sales campaign 2.4. Using EIS Login to the system View current production status Review order status Check status on stocks against orders Ability to manage production and delivery 2.4.1. What is EIS? EIS is a type of Decision Support System (DDS) that is capable of providing managers an accurate data so that they can adjust and recommend solutions to address issues during production. EIS can be easily defined as a tool that would allow managers accurate information on the status of production. It would also provide sales on available stocks to meet consumer demands. 2.4.1. Reasons for the Use EIS in this Problem EIS is a cost effective and accurate tool. Reports can be easily attained by just using the system. Focus saving’s on materials. To achieve an automated system for reports and decision making To help sales people in managing orders To have a single system that updates other systems that requires the data and is standard for all sites. Faster extraction of data for reports. System can also give a pareto result. Centralized Database. 2.5. Development Schedule The EIS is a Decision Support Systems and should follow the Development Process, therefore the development process of an EIS project will be the same as DSS Development Process. DSS Development Process (DDP) can be defined as “a generalized set of activities and phases of development that are typically associated with DSS design” (Marakas, 2003, p.455). Figure 2 shows the generalized DSS Development Process. Figure 2: Generalized DSS Development Process (Source: Marakas, 2003, p. 455) Based on this figure, the schedule of the EIS project for Long Drive Company could be as follows (Marakas, 2003, p.455-458): I. Problem Diagnosis A. Analyze the company’s current position B. Identify project scope C. Feasibility study IV. System Design / Description EIS is a software product that collects information from different programs used in the production plant. Simply forward that information into a central database and then provide reporting mechanisms to present system metrics. Figure 1 EIS System Figure 1 shows the functional diagram of EIS System. Executive Information System is the primary user interface. It allows the manager to key in production status into their workstations and get accurate information. A. Determine the physical components B. Determine structure C. Determine development platforms D. Specify development tools VI. System Implementation A. Develop test plans B. Obtain test resources C. Conduct testing D. Document test results E. Develop implementation plans F. Conduct user training 3.0. Incremental Adaptation 3.1. Periodic checking The time for each activity cannot be determined without visiting the company and determine the amount of information to be stored in this system, the decisions to be supported, the availability of technologies and the availability of other resources. EIS Analysis System analysis phase includes four activities shown in figure 3: requirements modeling, data and process modeling, object modeling, and finally the transition to the next phase which is system design (Shelly, Chashman, Rosenblat, 2001, p. 3.3). Figure 3: The Activities in System Analysis Source (Shelly, Chasman and Rosenblat, 2001, p.3.3) 5.0.0. EIS Specific Requirements Requirements’ modeling is about investigating and fact-finding in order to describe the current system and detail the requirements of the new system. It should be specific and should show details as to what products are in demand. It should also show details as to what current systems are being used and the types of equipments being used in the manufacturing plant. As stated before, the generalized DSS development process is followed to develop the EIS for Long Drive. And the requirements in this methodology, which are all under system analysis, are (Marakas, 2003, p. 457): - Functional Requirements. - Interface Requirements. - Coordination Requirements Long Drive requirements can be categorized under those three categorizes as follows: - Functional Requirements: o EIS capacity storage should be big enough to store the current year data o The system should have portable storage devices linked to the system to store all years’ data for the sake of comparison. o EIS should be capable of recalling specific information about products, components, sales periods activities, customers, competitors current activities, company’s current position in the market …etc. o EIS should be accompanied with prediction models to predict sales projections, costs and profits in long term periods. o EIS should support strategic planning. o EIS should be integrated with customers’ databases. o EIS should generate reports to list all sales during given period. o EIS should have sales tracking system that produces a daily fast-moving-item report, listing all products that exceed or behind forecasted sales volume categorized by product style, size and color. - Interface Requirements: o The system should be user friendly. o Input devices can be keyboard, mouse, scanners or voice recognition. o The directing manager interacts with EIS by using a web browser application. o The design must be easy to learn and use. o Buttons and icons should be labeled clearly. o The chosen images for control buttons and icons should be understandable by users. o The on-screen instructions should be logical, clear and to the point. o All currently available commands in a menu list should be displayed. o The interface must be designed to improve efficiency and productivity. o Multilevel hierarchy should be used to group functions, tasks and commands. o The menu lists should be alphabetically sorted. o A list of possible values should be appeared when the user enter the first few letters of a word. o Minimize data entry problems. o Data validation checks should be available. o Predetermined values should be available to prevent spelling errors. o Create an attractive layout and design. o Appropriate color schemes should be used. o Hyperlinks should be used to simplify navigation. o Titles, messages and instructions should be displayed in the same locations on all screens (Shelly,Cashman and Rosenblatt, 2001, p. 7.5 – 7.9) - Coordination Requirements: o EIS processing time should be minimized to the minimum. o Access should be restricted to people with permission only. o Security should be enhanced in the system o The data should be stored logically. 6.0. Determination of Information Needs Executives’ information needs are with unique characteristics. There are different methods to determine those needs, such as (Marakas, 2003, p. 182): - By- product method - Null method. - Key indicator method. - Total study method. - Critical success factors method. Investigating the managing director special needs, especially in sales and distribution operations, critical success factors tend to be the candidate method. To elaborate more, let’s look at both the managing director needs and the characteristics of critical success factors method 6.1. Managing Director Needs - Long Drive is to stay competitive. - Track sales and distribution data. - Increase profits and decrease costs. - Track customers’ position in the market. - Compare the real sales’ data with the forecasted data. - Look and exploit any chance for improvement and for increasing profit. Critical success factors can serve as the basis for the design of a computer based EIS for Long Drive due to its unique characteristics described under the next title. 6.2. Critical Success Factors Critical success factors (CSFs) has unique characteristics (Marakas, 2003, p. 183): - It is the most comprehensive approach in the determination of executives’ needs. - There is always certain CSFs in each organization - Identification of CSFs will ensure the health and the competitiveness of the organization. - CSFs information must be gathered and supplied to the top executives to be used as the basis in decision making. - EIS can refine the CSFs for the executives to easily discuss goals and objectives and to determine the company’s prospective actions. Critical success factors can be gathered through structured interviewing with the top executives. Long Drive managing director is seeking profit and competition and this can be assured by using CSFs and EIS. 7.0. EIS Design EIS analysis is the key indicator to the EIS design. The physical components, structure and development platforms were already determined. Development tools and interface should also been determined. EIS design will be used in the development phase where the prototype is constructed (Marakas, 2003, p. 457). For the EIS to work, a structured development approach should be followed. There are many proposed frameworks for the development of EIS such as: ESPRIT, Millet et al framework and Watson et al framework. Among those, most practitioners prefer Watson’s framework (Kaniclides & Kimble, n.d.) (A framework for the development and use of executive information system). Huge Watson, Kelly Rainer and Chang Koh developed an EIS development framework in 1991 based on their experience in EIS. Their EIS development framework consists of three major components (Marakas, 2003, p. 188) as shown in figure 4: - The Structural Perspective - The Development Process - The user-system dialog Figure 4: Aspects of the EIS Development Framework Source: Adopted from (Watson, Rainer & Koh, 1991) 6.1. Structural Perspective The structural perspective of the EIS development framework focuses on two main things: Personnel and data. Figure 5 shows the structural perspective of EIS development framework as suggested by Watson et al (Marakas, 2003, p. 188) Figure 6: Structural Perspective of EIS Development Framework Source: (Marakas, 2003, p. 188) )) The structural perspective mainly provides information or representation for understanding the relationships between the different elements and their interaction during EIS development. - Data are essential component of EIS, they can be internal, external, hard or soft data. For the best practices of EIS, internal data can be extracted from existing organizational databases which are currently used in the functional areas. Other internal data could be soft data that are basically verbal such as news, plans, explanations, predictions and ideas. Those data are very important that add considerably to the richness of the EIS (Watson et al, 1991). Examples of internal data for the Long Drive Company are: o Employees’ information: Name, ID, working hours, productivity, salary, overtime …etc. o Products’ information: Product name, ID, batch No., batch size, quantity, price, manufacturing place (Factory I or Factory II), raw materials used, machines needed, power needed, potential customers, …etc. o Sales and Marketing information: Current demand, forecasting, customers’ information, price, sold products, expected profit, cost, …etc. o Customers’ information: Customer name, address, demand, pay options, …etc. External data are as essential as internal data. External data might include customers data, suppliers data, stock market data and competitors data. EIS can be linked to the external data bases to retrieve the required data. - Personnel: Company executives served as the initiator for the EIS (Watson et al, 1991). Long Drive’s managing director should sponsor the development of the EIS by giving the required access to information, data and equipment to the development team. XIII. Development Process The problem statement suggests that Long Drive is in need to have an EIS. In fact, the need to build an EIS is the consequence of both internal and external pressures Long Drive currently have. Table 1 summarizes those pressures. Table 1: Pressures leading to EIS Development (Source: Adopted from Watson et al, 1991) In the development process, the development of EIS is translated into a time frame. This time frame can be seen as a similar way to represent the DDP (Decision Support System Development Process) mentioned earlier. The development process is illustrated in figure 7 Figure 7: Development Process (Source: Maraks, 2003, p. 189). 6.3. User-System Dialog The dialog is the most important component in the EIS system from the executive’s perspective (Watson et al, 1991). The executive’s interface needs were listed in the analysis phase. To elaborate more, the executive needs the system to provide context-dependent online help and menus and keywords indices to help executive locates information easily. The training should be short and effective (Watson et al, 1991). 8.0. EIS Prototype Along the way of EIS Design, a design prototyping approach was followed. Prototyping involves “a repetitive sequence of analysis, design, modeling, and testing” (Shelly et al, 2003, p. 6.19). The prototype was designed using Microsoft Access. The designed prototype includes the following features: - Employees’ database - Customers’ database - Products’ database - Models for forecasting and prediction - Reports generator - Links to external databases - Competitors’ database - Vendors and Suppliers’ database 9.0. Conclusion Full implementation of the system would minimize faults and would raise revenues in sales and in production. The system can be defined to its minute detail of tracking including the parts or materials used in the production of the products. Managers would have a tool that they can rely on to make business decisions in a timely and accurate manner. Read More