Susan's Special Sauces is a company that produces a variety of condiments, salad dressings and sauces. Susan, the company owner, wants to distribute her product overseas and recently purchased a building on the outskirts of town. She wishes to become more organized with her record keeping, especially as it relates to inventory tracking. She usually writes an order down on any available scrap of paper or just relies on her memory. If she has products already bottled, she gets the order prepared, boxed and delivered. If a new batch is required, the cooks may or may not receive this information, which leads to problems of having too much or too little of a particular item on hand. Now that she is expanding, Susan needs to be much more organized.
Initially, Susan wants you to build a database that allows her to monitor the inventory levels of the company's products. For instance, she would like to know current, maximum, and minimum inventory levels, production costs, and selling prices for the company's products. Susan also needs a more formalized method for tracking inventory. She needs simple, effective forms for entering data about her products, and reports that identify low-in-stock items and items that are currently in inventory. She also needs to extract specific stock items and items that are currently in inventory, and specific information about the company's products and product categories from the database.
QUESTION ONE
(a) Extract examples of the eight (8) elements of the work system of the company from the scenario
(b) Give two examples of Information Infrastructure with reference to the different types of sauces.
(c) State, with reasons, whether the focus of the business is based on business results, participants and the business as a whole, or technology and information
(d) Susan wants to automate part of the Information System so that her clients can access the system and order sauces and condiments online themselves. Describe an element of the Work System that may be impacted negatively or positively.
QUESTION THREE
(a) State three functional areas that are necessary in this scenario
(b) For each functional area in (a) above, describe one task that is required at the Operational Level based on this scenario
(c) Susan has other distribution points in South America. Describe three challenges that must have been addressed prior to submission of financial reports to Head Office in your country
(d) You own the franchise for one of the salsas in your country. Discuss two general adjustments that a franchise in Argentina may request to the salsa so that it is accepted in that country.
QUESTION FOUR
You have created a Weekly Inventory Report located on page 7. Note the following:
Quantity on Hand identifies the number of units currently in stock
Minimum Inventory Level identifies the amount of product that should be kept on hand. New batches are made when this level is reached.
(a) Discuss the findings of the report and highlight any important trends.
(b) Identify, with reasons, a field in the report that would be used as a primary key in the database
(c) Sketch another report called a Reorder Report to show the number of products that are below the Minimum Inventory Level for EACH product category
(d) As a manager:
i. Describe two concerns or questions that you would have about the information given in the Reorder Report, and how they can impact the profits of the business
ii. Give two recommendations that can address this issue with the personnel in the department that controls the inventory ?