A Better System For Hoosier Burgers

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

In the quest of building a better system for Hoosier Burgers, we must first design a System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) where the main focus would be to design an effective information system that will track of orders, maintain inventory, allow for growth, and prevent accounting issues commonly found in the old pin and paper method. Basically, this system analysis would cover just about every aspect of the business to ensure effective and efficient operations of Hoosier Burgers.

"Considering that SDLC has four different stages in its development process which consist of a planning and selection stage, an analysis stage, a design stage and finally the implementation stage (Valacich , George , & Hoffer, 2009, p. 3)". Depending on the desired goals of a business, it is imperative that a complete breakdown of the most important functions of the business be implemented during this phase in the development process. For example, within Hoosier Burgers there are functions such as sales, orders, accounting and purchasing which need to be accurately tracked on a daily basis. Therefore, Bob and Thelma Mellankamp needed to develop a system that supports Hoosier Burgers business process, a system that utilized a database approach which could effectively track the functions of the ordering processes, accounting processes as well as the payroll processes. What this would do, is give the owners complete access to important information such as order filling and forecasting, inventory usage and invoicing as well as the creation of a general ledger that closely monitors basic sales information such as accounts receivable.

Despite the fact that this project was identified as most projects are, through trial and error of daily operations. Hoosier Burgers needed to take a sound approach to identification and selection, scope definition, examination of feasibility factors and the development of a project scope statement to efficiently build a better operating system. For example, the use of the old pin and paper method provided further insight to the shortcomings of inventory control, customer ordering and management reporting. Basically the use of this method translated to food shortages, longer customer wait times and the overall inability to operate an efficient business. Thus proving that Hoosier Burgers current way of managing information by hand was insufficient for a growing business.

While most businesses have multiple projects with teams all competing for limited resources, it goes without saying that a specific project might take precedence over other projects based on a cost-benefit analysis which compares project feasibility. However, this was not the case for Hoosier Burgers because there were no other projects to choose from. This makes the selection process undeniable and basically paves the way for the development of a scope of work path to complete: upgrade the system, eliminate the current shortcomings and keep customers coming back by utilizing a point-of-sale system to meet the demands of inventory management, marketing, customer service, and food preparation. For example, Hoosier Burgers should address topics which must include problems and opportunities of the project as well as what needs to be done to achieve the desired results and how it will be measured to determine success of the project (Valacich , George , & Hoffer, 2009, p. 57)".

Basically, for the Hoosier Burger Project, it is essential that they include a project scope statement by addressing the issues that can be resolved, opportunities for improvement and the potential benefits that can be achieved. For example, Hoosier Burgers must ensure customer satisfaction by maintaining ample product inventory, provide deliverables and objectives by lowering order wait times to a point that is reasonably practicable and most of all keep customers coming back by utilizing a new point-of-sale system.

Although developing a project scope statement can come in many forms due to the type of the project. For example, the use of questionnaires can assist with the overall desires of the project as well as obtaining information for its primary objectives. Therefore, in order for Hoosier Burgers to collect this pertinent information it is essential for them to develop customer satisfaction questionnaires along with questionnaires for the employees. In preparing a customer service questionnaire, the most relevant questions could be related to the service, efficiency, products, satisfaction and recommendation. For example,

Question 1: Did the services offered by the restaurant meet your needs?

Question 2: Did the efficiency of our staff meet your satisfaction?

Question 3: Were the products being offered at the restaurant meet your satisfaction?

Question 4: Would you return to this restaurant based on the service we provided?

Question 5: Would you recommend our restaurant to a friend?

Question 6: How can we better service our customer?

When preparing a questionnaire for the waiters, the five most relevant questions would pertain to the work environment, benefits and management. For example,

Question 1: With respect to your current position how do you feel about the work environment? Question 2: Is the atmosphere at Hoosier Burgers one that makes you feel comfortable?

Question 3: Are you satisfied with the benefits offered by Hoosier Burgers?

Question 4: Are you satisfied with the current management system of Hoosier Burgers?

Question 5: Do you have any recommendations for improvement that you feel would make Hoosier Burgers a better place to work?

Much like the questionnaire for the waiters the five most relevant questions for the cooks would also consist of areas surrounding the work environment, benefits and management. For example,

Question 1: Are you satisfied with the current working conditions?

Question 2: Are you satisfied with the benefits offered for work you provide?

Question 3: are you satisfied with the work environment at Hoosier Burgers?

Question 4: How do you see your relationship with your colleagues?

Question 5: Do you have any recommendations for improvement that you feel would make Hoosier Burgers a better place to work?

The purposes of these questions would be to determine the level of customer and employee satisfaction based on the products, services and work environment offered by Hoosier Burger’s. Therefore providing Hoosier Burgers with much needed data to analyze and draw conclusions from. "After all, key business processes are generally customer focused and include all activities used to design, build, deliver, support, and service a particular product for a particular customer (Valacich , George , & Hoffer, 2009)". The use of these questionnaires provides the most significant information based on demographics. Basically, when a business focuses on the demographics of an area it is more in tune with its customers and their needs. Therefore, making the use of questionnaires the easiest way to target, promote and advertise the business. However, probably the most difficult and inappropriate demographic document to obtain would be a customers’ personal information.

Furthermore, when considering modern methods for identifying system requirements such as joint application design (JAD) and prototyping. JAD would be considered the most important way to collect information for analysis, because this method gets the key individuals involved in the project together to discuss operations and system requirements which lead to a more structured process. "Therefore, if the management of Hoosier Burgers would consider the using the above guidelines in conjunction with a data-flow diagram that shows the system boundaries, external entities that interact with the system, and the major information flows between the entities and the system (Valacich , George , & Hoffer, 2009, p. 172)". The four major processes of a context diagram is to capture data from various sources, store important data, produce and distribute that data, and develop high level imageries of the data transformation process. For example, below is a modified context-level data flow diagram of the Hoosier Burger Restaurant utilizing a level 0 diagram to demonstrate the major processes of a system, data stores, and data flows.

Kitchen

Customer

1. Receive Orders Customer Order Food Order

Receipt

2. Update on Goods Sold

3. Updated Inventory Record

Data of Goods Sold Inventory Data

4. Produce Reports

Record of Goods Sold Inventory Record

Management

Furthermore, when a level 1 diagram is utilized the results display a series of sub processes within the process found on a level 0 diagram. For example, the below is a level 1 diagram of the same four processes found on the level 0 Hoosier Burger diagram in a more detailed approach.

1.1 Receive Order

Kitchen Customer Order

1.2 Write Order Receipt Customer Order Customer Order

1.3 Utilize Food Ordering Format Food Order

Receipt

Customer

1.4 Increase Records of Goods Sold Customer Order

1.5 Decrease Inventory Customer Order

2. Update Records of Goods Sold Data of Goods Sold

3. Update Inventory Records

Inventory Data

Updated Inventory

4. Management Report Updated Data Sold

Manager

Management Reports

After reviewing the above diagrams it is obvious that if Hoosier Burgers utilized this approach it would assist in building a better system for Hoosier Burgers and give management a better understanding of how the processes interact within the system. Basically, this system analysis covered just about every aspect of the business to ensure effective and efficient operations of Hoosier Burgers as well as provide an enhanced visual stance of their current processes to better manage inventory.