Aim:
To give you practical experience in using Entity-Relationship and Relational Database modelling techniques.
Project Specification
The proprietors of WareMart Logistics have approached you and asked if you could design a database to help them manage their business. They would like you to create a conceptual data model of their business information requirements and would like to see how the model could be used to provide the answers to some commonly requested queries and reports.
WareMart has provided the following information that it believes may be relevant to your task:
• WareMart Logistics Pty Ltd operates a large warehousing and transportation business. It has a number of warehouses around the country.
• Each warehouse is referenced by a warehouse number, and WareMart would also like to record street, city, state and postcode details.
• Each warehouse has a number of employees and WareMart references them by use of a Staff ID. In addition they record surname, first name, date of birth, street, city, state, postcode and salary details.
• Each warehouse has a single manager and a manager is responsible for only one warehouse.
• Employees do not report directly to the manager but to a fellow employee who has been given supervisor status.
• Merchandise is stored in warehouse ‘locations'. Each location reference is made up of an aisle, shelf and bin number component. As an example you will find a carton of product number 123 (Printing paper) in location 13,2,1 which refers to aisle 13, shelf 2, and bin 1. WareMart wants to know the capacity of each location, as well as whether hazardous materials can be stored there.
• A product can be stored in more than one location within a warehouse and a location can hold more than one product.
• Products are assigned a department and each department is referred to by a department number. WareMart also stores the department name for each department. The other information WareMart requires for each of its products is the product number, a description of the product and its pack size
• WareMart requires also the information on what quantity of each product is on hand at any given warehouse ‘location'. The location capacity and quantity on hand is in terms of the pack size of the product stored there.
• Clients are allocated a client number and this along with the client name is recorded. In addition each client has a main address, but may also have several others e.g. postal address, deliver-to address, etc. The individual address details recorded are: street, city, state, and postcode.
• A client may place several merchandise requests and WareMart needs to know the date a request was placed as well as the quantity for each of the products on that request. Once a request is placed a picking list is generated. Picking staff use this list to fill the client request. The picking list also has a spot for the employee to enter their staff id, the date the product was picked and the quantity picked from that specific location.
You are required to design (using an E-R diagram) an entity-relationship model of the problem, convert the model into a relational model, and assess the normal form of each schema.