Re: A data model for a school project - Model the inventory for computer manufacturing process

These are the types of details that one would ask their client. No really. How does their workflow work? When a shipment from a supplier comes in the packing slip itself doesn't say that the company you have is going to use 7 for computers and 3 for sales. The supplier probably doesn't know (doesn't need to know or care.). The shipping clerk is going to just check in the goods. When the shipping clerk enters the data into the system the shipping clerk does not know what the company is going to do with the goods. Think later when the purchasing agent is trying to run a report on parts and what came in and got used for what.

I know you are in school but don't take an academic approach think about what is going on the system. You may be "wrong" but if you can outline etc what your thought process was and justify it then you should get points for that. IF the prof is only interested in the "right answer" and not how you got to the answer you got then I'm sorry but you picked the wrong prof.

Jim

"consultant76" <gguion_at_austin.rr.com> wrote in message news:f4eca69a.0111041217.727ec350_at_posting.google.com...
> I am a student at UT Austin and I have been assigned to a team
> project. Our assignment is to model a computer business that
> manufactures computers and sells them in the retail market along with
> other peripherials and software. Here is my question (I will use an
> illustration to detail):
>
> Lets say you order 10 harddrives from a supplier and our company has
> allocted 7 to be used in assembly of computers and the other 3 will be
> sold via the retail market. How is each item defined in the system?
> Do the 7 go into Raw Materials and the other 3 go directly into
> Finished Goods and skip the raw materials table or do they go into raw
> materials and just move directly to the finished goods? How is all of
> this defined?
>
> Here are the entities we have:
>
> RAWMATERIALS - components used in making a PRODUCT.
> FINISHEDGOODS - a PART that is ready to be shipped as a PRODUCT.
> PART - the type of physical item that goes into a PRODUCT.
> INVENTORYITEM - represents the physical occurence of one and only one
> PART that may be offered as a GOOD.
> GOOD - a subtype of a PRODUCT.
> PRODUCTS - which are inventory items ready to be sold.
>
> I got the above details from a book about data modeling, but I don't
> understand it all either nor do I know what I really need. Since this
> is the first db course I am taking the professor has dummied the
> project up so we only need to model this at a basic level so we do not
> need to get very complex with subassemblies etc.
>
> We really need your help.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gary Guion
>
> gary.guion_at_bba00.bus.utexas.edu
Received on Sun Nov 04 2001 - 21:51:21 CET