Bill of Material Inventory Program
Spring 2006
Sponsor:
Skills of PA
Skills of Central Pennsylvania, Inc.
2593-1 Clyde Ave
State College, PA 16801
Instructor: Dr. E.DeMeter
Completed: April 24, 2006
Team Members:
Ayush Jain
azj110@psu.edu
Aditya Guna
amg321@psu.edu
Wan Nurul Izza
wzw105@psu.edu
Problem Statement:
Currently, Skills of PA is using a DOS based inventory program made in 1991 by a Pennsylvania State University student. This program is now unable to serve their purpose since it is antiquated and very time consuming as it only accepts the part number. This scenario has caused quite a few problems for them. The current method that they adopted is to store the description of the item number in small note cards and use those cards to assist them with their job.
Overall Objectives of the
Project:
Based on the background information of this project outlined in the introduction, the goal of this project is to determine an electronic inventory system that has a superior functionality than the current system used by Skills of PA.
Several objectives must be met to achieve our goal for this project. The objectives are listed below:
1. To acquire a commercial inventory program that suits the company’s requirements, by researching and benchmarking available commercial inventory programs.
2. To develop an in-house inventory program that satisfies the current inventory process requirements.
3. To obtain the best inventory program that meets the company’s requirements, by performing a comparative analysis between the researched commercial inventory software and the in-house inventory software.
Executive Summary:
After visiting the Skill of PA and discussing the problem with their representative, we defined the goal of this project, which was to develop a Bill of Material Inventory Program that would increase efficiency and the accuracy of their current inventory program or replace it. The specific goals and objectives of this project were to develop an in-house inventory program and concurrently find existing softwares used in industry that meet the requirements listed by Skills of PA, which is such as follows:
- Software runs on all Windows versions 9x/NT/2000/Me/ XP
- Software is user-friendly
- Item Grouping Feature is included
- Backup and restore the inventory database in the system
- Documents can be sent by E- mail from own mail program
- Creates and prints Receiving and Shipping orders, Invoices for inventory data.
- FREE Technical Support for the inventory software by Email
- Price is reasonable and affordable
The benchmarking of commercial software started on January 25, 2006. Three softwares were chosen for this purpose - the iMagic Inventory Software, ABMIS Professional Inventory Software and Maintenance Parts Bin Inventory Software. The trial version of each softwares were downloaded and tested for a period of 20 days. The best out of these three choices was selected using a comparison matrix, which turned out to be the “iMagic Inventory Software”. The iMagic inventory program satisfied all the requirements of the company. It was also the most user-friendly in comparison to other softwares that were tested.
Concurrently, the basic design such as the functionality, usability and aesthetics of the in-house inventory software were made based on the research and benchmarking of the three selected softwares mentioned earlier. The development of the in-house inventory software using C++ language started on February 15, 2006, which took about 24 days to be completed. Upon completion, the in-house software was tested for bugs and other problems that can be encountered in the work environment.
Skills of PA will receive a supplementary and an interactive manual to help the company to get started with the software. Overall, from our estimated budget of $500, $ 20 has been spent. The trial version of iMagic inventory software, ABMIS Professional software and Maintenance Parts Bin software were downloaded for free. However, the recommended software, iMagic will be purchased for $199 upon the approval of Skills of PA.