The Process Control Systems

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

This assignment is about chosen a familiar organisation and presenting our understanding of the overall case context, and a summary of their functioning.

In our case we have decided to choose a particular retail Company called (Aldi) which is into various food product and beverages. ALDI is a global food retailer. Since opening its store in 1913, Aldi has established itself as a reputable retailer operating in international markets including Germany, Australia and the U.S. what distinguishes Aldi from its competitors is its competitive pricing strategy without reducing the quality of its product.

Types of Decision

Decision is classify into the following category.

Unstructured

Structured

Semi structured

Unstructured Decision

Unstructured decisions are made at the top-level management of an organisation which is at the Strategic Level. The decision concerns general direction, long-term goals of an organisation. These decisions are unstructured and most imaginative, they are the most risky and of the most uncertain outcome. Example: As organisation grow in size and because of the fast growing of their customer base worldwide they decided to open a new branch of Aldi limited in Saudi Arabia so that people of Saudi Arabia can benefit from their product at a great value prices.

Semi Structured Decision

This are used to set medium term goals that form stages leading to the accomplishment of the organisation’s strategic objective, medium significance with moderate consequence. Semi-structured decisions made by level managers to monitor and control the activities of the organisation. Example the semi structured decision would be to control the budgets, allocate resources and set policies for the new open site, markets to target. This type of decision takes place at the tactical level

Structured Decision

This type of decision takes place at the Operational Level

They are day-to-day activities of an organisation that support tactical decisions. Structured decisions determine how activities actually get done. They are the 'grass roots' decisions about who is going to do what and when. Example: is stock control.

2)

QUESTION 2

a)

Strategic Decision

For the strategic decision made by ALDI UK Limited to have a branch of their store open in Saudi Arabia the management would have to go through these FIVE stages in making their decision.

Intelligence: the first step in decision-making is to recognize and define the problems. At this stage awareness has already be created which require a decision to be made in other to tackle the problem at hand.

Design: the decision maker should have the ability to identify and analyse option courses of action, and assess their effects on the opportunity or problem, identify all possible solution and analyse all possible solution.

Choice: select best solution i.e. chooses a preferred course of action.

The Choice is the critical aspect of decision making, it’s critical because it’s the one that the actual choice is made on and they are dedicated to follow certain course of action is made. Which include the evaluation of, and the recommendation of the best solution to the problem.

Implementation: this stage involve implement the choice you have made after vigilant consideration, identifying and analysing the problem.

Evaluation: This stage is to assess the results and proceed with any follow up, evaluate efficiency or success of decision. If the outcome is not satisfactory the process will be repeated, from the first stage to the last stage

b) Characteristic of decision taken at various level of organisation

Management Level

Type of Decision

Timescale

Impact on Organisation

Frequency of Decision

Strategic

Unstructured

Long

Large

Infrequent

Tactical

Unstructured/

Structured

Medium

Medium

Infrequent/

Frequent

Operational

Structured

Short

Small

Frequent

Unstructured Decision

From the above table it will noted that in Strategic level of the organisation the type of decision taken is unstructured, complex in nature, and the timescale to make such decision is Long term decision, if the decision goes wrong the impact on the organisation is large, as they deal with the future and it involved a lot of risk therefore it’s a great imperative before such decision are made it must go through careful process of the stages of decision making and the choice should be properly consider to be the best selection. Frequency of this type of decision is infrequent. This is the top level of the organisation

Unstructured/structured Decision

In the tactical level this type of decision falls between the structured and the unstructured and the timescale is medium, the impact of this type of decision on the organisation is medium and the frequency is infrequent/frequent. They are the middle level of management in an organisation.

Structured Decision

This type of decision takes place at operational level in organisation, its structured decision, whereby all the rules and constraints governing the decision are know, example what level of discount shall we give our customers and what are their characteristics. The timescale is relatively small as they involved a routing situation. This type of decision has small impact on the organisation, and the frequency of decisions is frequent.

(QUESTION 3) Discuss how information systems can support a manager’s activities in an organisation.

Information system can be defined as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making, coordination and control in an organisation. Manager role in an organisation is to coordinate, plan, control and monitor daily activities of the organisation.

Below are five basic resources that support information systems.

People resources

Software resources

Hardware resources

Data resources

Communication resources

People resources involved users of the information system and information systems specialist Examples are data entry clerks and technical support staff

Software resources involved the programs and procedures that execute the instructions or operation of the computer system.

Hardware resources this are the physical devices and materials that are used in processing information.

Data resources describe all of the data that an organisation have access to regardless of the state or form, they are valuable to organisation. Database, knowledge base are the example of data resources.

Communication resources are the fundamental resources of information system which include network. Examples are internet, intranet, extranet.

(Question 4)

Computers-based information systems (CBIS) are information systems that make use of information technology to perform some or all of their tasks in order to create management information. Categories into the following

Operation information systems: Operations information systems are used for task involved in the daily running of a business. Their performance is often vital to an organization and is sometimes described as mission-critical or strategic information systems.

Transaction processing Control concentrate on processing the data generated by business transactions and operations. TPS record and process data resulting from business transactions (sales, purchases, inventory changes). TPS also produce a variety of information products for internal or external use (customer statements, employee payroll, sales receipts etc.) Batch Processing -transactions data is accumulated over a period of time and processed periodically.

 -Real-time (or online) processing - data is processed immediately after a transaction occurs.

Process Control Systems (PCS)

PCS are systems, which make use of computers to control ongoing physical processes. These computers are designed to automatically make decisions, which adjust the physical production process. Examples include petroleum refineries and the assembly lines of automated factories.

Office automation systems:

Management information systems: MIS are the most frequent form of management support systems. They offer managerial end users with information products that support much of their day-to-day decision-making needs. MIS provide a variety of pre specified information (reports) and displays to management that can be used to help them make more effective, structured types of day-to-day decisions. Information products provided to managers include displays and reports that can be furnished:

-On demand

-Periodically, according to a predetermined schedule

-Whenever there is occurrence of outstanding condition

Decision support system, (DSS) it helps to facilitate decisions on tactical and strategy making. Example of this is when a level manager needs to consider a business partner for discount; this is made possible by collating all relevant information and using it to make meaningful and tactical decisions

Information reporting system (IRS), it provides pre- specified report for the day to day decision making. Middle level managers to get feedback from the daily activities of the organisation also use it.

Executive information system, it provides senior managers with a system to analyse compare and track trends to help manage the strategic direction. Top-level managers to make strategic long to medium term decisions will use this. Example of that is the when the Royal Mail decided to shut down unprofitable outlets. This decision was made with the aid of executive information systems.

(Part B)

Question 1

Identify the Entities and the specific data for each entity

Customer

Customer type

Journey

Booking

Staff

Department

Car

Car type

Car parts

Part Type

Garage

Service history

Customer Table

Attribute

Data Type

Customer ID p#

Varchar

First Name

Char

Last Name

Char

City

Char

Postcode

Varchar

Telephone Number

Integer

Customer Type Table

Attribute

Data Type

Customer type ID p#

Varcher

Organisation Customer

Char

Executive Customer

Char

Members of Public

Char

Journey Table

Attribute

Data Type

Journey ID p#

Varchar

Journey Name

Char

Staff ID f#

Char

Car ID f#

Varchar

Departure Date

Datetime

Department ID f#

Varchar

Mile

Integer

Mileage Start

Integer

Mileage End

Integer

Cost

Money

Booking Table

Attribute

Data Type

Booking ID p#

Varchar

Customer ID f#

Varchar

Staff ID f#

Varchar

Car Type

Char

Car ID f#

Varchar

Location

Char

Time

Datetime

Date

Date

Cost

Money

Staff Table

Attribute

Data Type

Staff ID p#

Varchar

Name

Char

Surname

Char

Department ID f#

Varchar

Hire date

Date

Salary

integer

Departure date

Date

Address

Varchar

City

Char

Post Code

Varchar

Telephone

Integer

Email

Varchar

Department Table

Attribute

Data Type

Department ID p#

Varchar

Department Name

Char

Staff ID f#

Varchar

Car ID

Varchar

Car Table

Attribute

Data Type

Car ID p#

Varchar

Car Name

Char

Model Number

Integer

Manufacturer

Char

Registration Number

Varchar

Seat

Integer

Date Bought

Date

Service History Number

Integer

Mileage

Integer

Car Type Table

Attribute

Data Type

Car Type ID

Varcher

Car Type Name

Char

Car Type Model

Char

Car Type Make

Char

Car Type Year

Integer

Car Type Registration Number

Integer

Car Parts Table

Attribute

Data Type

Car parts ID

Varchar

Name

Char

Make

Char

Model

Integer

Year

Datetime

Cost

Money

Part Type Table

Attribute

Data Type

Part Type ID p#

Varchar

Part type Major

Char

Part Type_Sub

Char

Garage Table

Attribute

Data Type

Garage ID p#

Varcher

Garage Name

Char

Garage Address

Varchar

Garage Telephone Number

Integer

Email

Varchar

Parts Used

Char

Labour Cost

Money

Parts type

Char

Service History

Attribute

Data Type

Service history ID p#

Varchar

Garage Name

Char

Parts Used

Char

Service type

Char

Labour Date

Date

Labour time

Datetime

Labour cost

Money

Cost of each part

Money

All primary and foreign keys are marked in the tables with p# being the primary key and f# being the foreign keys

First-Cut ERD

Final Entity Relationship Diagram with Elimination Of Many-to Many

(ERD 2)

Business Rule Assumptions

Customer can make one or more booking

Booking can belong to one customer only

Customer can book one or more journey

Destination can be booked by one or more customer

A staff is responsible for booking journeys

Each department has one or more staff

Each Department has one or more cars

An authorised staff can use one or more cars in a department

Journey can be covered by one or more cars

Car can cover one or more journeys

Car park is manage by a member of staff

Records of cars parked in the car park are kept at all time

Part type can either be a major component or sub of a major component, not both.

Part B Question 2

Functional Requirement Specification

Systems should hold types of client, details and the various accounts.

1.0.1 System should have facility to hold Client names

1.0.2 System should have facility to hold Client surname

1.0.3 System should have facility to hold Client Address

1.0.4 System should have facility to hold Client Contact details

1.0.5 System should have facility to hold Client Account number

1.1 Systems should be able to show the current state of an account

1.1.1 System should hold and display the title of the account

1.1.2 System should have facility to plan start and finish dates of an account

1.1.3 System should be able to hold costs and dates incurred for each account

1.1.4 System should be able to record the mileage of each vehicle at the start and end of each journey.

1.1.5 System should have facility to record the type of booking.

1.2 The system should be able to provide booking date

1.2.1 System should have facility to invoice clients for each business accounts

1.2.2 System should be able to record complete payments for accounts made by the client

1.2.3 Systems should be able to assign drivers working on it as a supervisor/manager

1.2.4 System should be able to assign drivers/staff member to Client contacts

1.3 Systems should be able to incorporate staff that worked on the system

1.3.1 System should provide drivers/staff the means to record details of the accounts

1.3.2 System should provide drivers/staff the means to record details of their bonuses

1.3.3 System should provide facility to record notes, which should be embedded within the system

1.3.4 System should provide access to other staff to view the recorded notes

1.3.5 Systems should record details of extra services accorded to the clients, and the dates

1.4 System should record details of staff and their positions

1.4.1 System should record staff salary grade and amount

1.4.2 System should have facility to calculate staff bonus

1.4.3 System should hold a record of each quota of pool-cars that is given to each department in the company, and should record of authorize employees with the department that makes use of the pool-cars on a daily basis

1.4.4 System should be able to record the destination, employee number and departure date.

1.4.5 System should have record of all the cars service history

1.4.6 System should able to record the name of the garage, the labour cost, parts used and the cost of each part.

1.4.7 System should have a record of those parts that are major components, or are sub-parts of a major component.

PART B

Use Cases.

Assumption

Customer: customer make a booking through telephone or in person

Payment: there are more than one payment method i.e. card via telephone or

Cash in person.

Staff: receptionist/staff manage booking processes.

Service Garage: there is more than one service garage available.

Use Case Description

Use Case Booking/Confirmation

Actor

System User

Precondition

To initiate the start-up of the booking system, customer should have executive cars telephone number before calling or in person, the address of executive cars and make their way down to the office to make booking.

Customer call to make a booking

Customer supply correct detail

Customer accept car type

Customer supply payment details

System request customer details

System propose car type

System request payment

System verify details

Payment accepted

Confirmation issued to customer.

Post-condition

Confirmation of booking

Alternate Flow

Existing Customer

Systems Verify Customer Exist

Customer Refuse Proposed Car Type

System request customer Choice

If customer choice is available

Car is booked for Customer

If customer choice is not available

Customer Either Accept Proposal Or End Of Process.

If payment details are incorrect

System request correct details and process end

If there are not enough funds in customer account

System request alternate payment account

And process end

Exception flow

If the customer details does not exist in the payment database

system inform customer that details is not found or exist

If customer System failure or crashes during transaction

System should be able to return to last input page.