Michigan Supply Inc. Case Study

CONFIDENTIAL

MIchigan Supply Inc.

Information Systems Initial Plan for Year 2005-20008

CONTEXT

MIchigan Supply Inc. (MIS Inc.) is a privately-held automotive parts supplier of a variety of products such as electronics, solenoids, wiring and fuel components. The company is currently located in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

INITIAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS

MIS is currently separated into 5 departments: Manufacturing and Production with engineers, machine workers and production managers; Finance and Accounting with accounts; Human Resources with human resources staff; Sales and Marketing with salespeople, sales managers, customer service representatives; and Upper Management with secretaries and executives.

Required systems and job Functions

Each department has its required systems and different job functions which as listed below:

o Manufacturing and Production information systems

§ Machine control system to control the actions of machines and equipment

§ Production planning system to decide when and how many products should be produced

§ Facilities location system to decide where to locate new production facilities

§ Graphic system for engineers to design or improve products

o Finance and Accounting information systems

§ Accounts receivable system to track money owed the firm

§ Budgeting system to prepare short-term budgets

§ Profit planning system to plan long-term profits

o Human Resources information systems

§ Training and development system to track employee training, skills, and performance appraisals

§ Compensation analysis system to monitors the range and distribution of employee wages, salaries, and benefits

§ Human resources planning system to plan the long-term labor force needs of the organization

o Sales and Marketing information systems

§ Order processing system to enter, process, and track orders

§ Pricing analysis system to determine prices for products and services

§ Sales trend forecasting system to prepare 5-year sales forecasts

o Upper Management information systems

§ Executive support systems to address non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight; and to filter, compress, track display critical data of greatest importance to executives.

Equipment and configuration

Currently MIS has 12 machine workers so we need at least 35 workstations. Initially there should be a black and white printer for each of 5 departments and color printers available for engineers, executives and salespeople. Required server services include email, file storage, printing, backup functionality and battery backup system. In addition to the 4 laptops executives currently have, 5 more should be purchased for salespeople for mobility.

Equipment to be purchased should be the latest models which are capable of providing the 3 years of services and growth.

Fig. 1 shows the company infrastructure configuration.

We expect to have 50k to spend on 35 workstations ordered from Dell, 10k on 8 printers from Hewlett-Packard, 200k on server equipment, which should cover the costs of battery backup network switches, servers, tape storage device, serve/workstation software licensing, and 10k on 5 Toshiba laptops for salespeople.

INTERNAL NETWORKING CONFIGURATION

Fig. 2 shows the preliminary network configuration sketch.

MIS will provide a star topology for the LAN connection. This enables a centralized network to have a limited distance of cable and a more manageable physical network. Also use local service provider AT&T to connect to outside network. Maximum speed with 512k is good enough for MIS to start with 47 employees at this time. Evaluate possibility to increase the port speed after 2.5 years of operations. About 13k is expected to be put on the internet service each year.

DATABASE