Designing a database for a supermarket Essay Example for Free

Designing a database for a supermarket Essay 1,1 The problem and how I discovered it- I discovered the problem when I was buying in this standard supermarket and I saw that some of the products where expired and were stale. I also noticed that some of the buyers or consumers were taking this product without knowing the consequences of them on their body. This is a picture of the supermarket. 1,2 The Business- This business is of a supermarket which is located in Alejandra del Castillo in San Fernando in the south of the Island of Gran Canaria. I was doing a survey on the supermarkets as a consumer when I discovered that some of the products were stale. I told the manager about the problem they asked me for help. 1,3 The real User- The manager is the in charge of dealing with these type of problems. Although in this case Mr.Angel, the manager is not able to find the solution to this problem. In this case I have decided to help him and to provide a better service to the customer. 1,4 The current problem and inefficient- The current main problem is that the manager or the employees arent getting to know when the food is going stale or is running out of date. Im being asked to create or to find some kind of solution to solve this major problem. There are many problems with the method that the employees are using now which is to go around checking each and every product for there date of expiry. They have been facing many problems with their method. For example: *There arent as many employees as needed for this method. *It might result a bit boring *Can produce headaches and blurry eyesight. *Different products have their expiry date stamped on a different place. This can be difficult to find. *Maybe some of the products arent visible to the employees and do not look for their expiry dates. 1,5 The manual and PC way- Manual way-This problem can be solved by making six different sections and assigning six different people to look for the expiry date. Also I would like to include that it would also make the in-charges life more easier if the products were placed in a more visible and easier accessible place so that none of the products are missed out. PC way- This method would be a lot more easier because it wouldnt include as many people as the manual way. This method consists of creating a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel. While learning I discovered a all new way of using excel. I mean that if the company creates as spreadsheet and inputs the amount of the product, the expiry date and include a photo and a brief description of the product and where it is located exactly. This would only involve one persons effort and would be a lot more efficient and would provide better services to the customers. 1,6 Objectives- *Create a Spreadsheet to solve the problem. *Create a chart showing before and after. *Create a Spreadsheet with the bar-codes and date of expiry. The date of expiry must be warned a couple of days in advance. * Use professional language. * Auto-fit values. * Dont make any errors * Check formulas TWICE * Use less staff. ANALYSE 2,1 Hardware- In my solution I will be using a LCD(Liquid Cristal Display) as an output device and a scanner or a 12,0 megapixel digital camera as an Input device, this is because I will need high resolution pictures or Photos to provide the company with the solution, i will also use a baar-code scanner to introduce the products bar-code. 2,2 Software- I am going to use Windows XP professional because its easier to use that the Windows vista and more complex than the Windows 2000 Operating System. I will be using OO(Open Office) Package so that I can provide or accomplish my solution correctly, I chose this becuse it has the same functions and options as the Microsoft Office but its free and can be downloaded easily An Anti-Virus will be required in case of any viruses are introduced into the computer Via Internet, I will choose the Kaspesky Anti-Virus because its more advanced and quicker, 2,3 Data Input- Data Type Collection Input Validation Bar-code Information Product Bar-code reader Not negative Photographs Image Internet Digital camera Not negative Graph Information Spreadsheet ToolbarTools Not negative Excel formulas Formulas User Keyboard Not negative 2,4 Data processing- 2,6 back up and security- As the Document we are doing is very important we must always remember to save it, this could save us a lot of typing because if there is a power cut documents wont get erased. We should remember to save our document every 5-10 minutes ,also we need to save it when we change or insert something manually. You should save it on your PCs desktop or in My Documents also it would be intelligent to save documents on two other or externel hard disks or send it to your own e-mail. The size of the file depends on the type, for example if it is done in excel, word or powerpoint , it would also effect the size of the document if there is facy coloured writing, outstanding writing or lots of pictures. Normally a word document of 10 -12 pages with three to four coloured pictures would weigh 294 KB (302.026 bytes), this means you would be able to save three thousand more files like this on a one gigabyte pendrive. Yes, I will set up passwords to my document incase a hacker or spammer brakes in and steals my data, this way I will be sure to have a unique solution to the problem. I can set passwords to documents by going on ToolsOptionsSecurity and set up the password. The Data Protection Act means the right to protect your own data, this is a part of legislation. We might use this because we need to consider the rights we have to protect our own typed data. IMPLEMENTATION 4,1 3 to 5 printouts with errors- -Error 1- The first error committed was that some of the pictures of the products are missing. This could lead to confusion and would seem difficult to identify the product. -Error 2- The second error was that some of the dates arent in the correct format. The Dash to separate the day from the month and year are missing. -Error 3- The last error made was that the currency wasnt in a correct format, some of the values were in euros and others were in pesetas. 4,2 Screenshots I will be creating 2 graphs, one to represent the number of products expired and the number of products close to expiry. It will look like this It will be a pie chart on the top left corner with a 3D look and the key on the left. This graph will tell the user the number of products close to expiry, this will warn the staff to put the product close to expiry in the front in order to sell it soon and it wont expire. The second graph in the spreadsheet will present the number of products expired. The bars will be in pyramid shape and with a 3D look, it will be on the left hand corner. The key will be on the right and the pyramids will be dark blue. It will be from A1 to D25.They will be dark blue. This is a new and a very effective method as it shows that lots of products are expiring and it warns the user to take a step forward in order to prevent the cheese expiring. The spreadsheet will have a main, the first one is to link to sheet two and the other one to sheet three. I have added the company logo. It will have a title in bold and underlined and an attractive backgound. I have included images to identify the product correctly. This could help the staff to find the product which is close to its expiry. I have added a button to change colour to red. This is a macro. 4,3 Test Results I have checked all spellings so that no mistakes or errors are made. Also it makes the spreadsheet look more professional and gives a good impression. It gives a high influence on reader and gives a professional feeling, I have included images of the product and i have also compared them to the original product in the supermarket so that the products look and are the same and this way if the name is typed incorrectly at least the employee can look for it and correct its name. I will be including the bar-code because it will de easier lo identify the product and also a mobile phone or a cordless bar-code reader can read it easily. This would make work a lot faster because more employees can scan the products at once. The number of products has been counted and double checked. Also there is a column showing how many articles there are and the days left for their expiry. An IF formula has been created to warn the incharge if there is a product with less than 2 days left for 4,4 Objectives I have created a spreadsheet to deal with the problem I have created a chart showing the before and after. I have included dates of expiry. EVALUATION 5,1 Objectives accomplished- à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Use fewer employees à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Create a graph showing the number of products expired before and after the method. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Create a spreadsheet à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Create at least to graphs with examples showing products expired on the spreadsheet. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Use spell-check to check spellings. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Create a main menu to graphs on the spreadsheet. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Include product images à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Include dates of expiry and days left. I did use fewer employees because this method used to deal with the problem only needs employee to type in the data and possible two others to re-check dates of expiry. I did not create a graph showing the number of products expired before and after the method used to deal with the problem but instead I created a table showing this data because it is easier to find information. I confirm that I have created a spreadsheet to deal with this problem. I have created two graphs, one showing the number of products expired and the days left for expiry and the second one showing the name of the product and the number of them expired. I have used spell-check in my solution my gathering all data and pressing F7. This function uses the dictionary on the computer and corrects any errors. My spreadsheet has a main menu linking to graphs on other sheets. I did this by the hyperlink option under the insert option. I have included product images but they have been collected from the internet and arent accurate and therefore not reliable. 5,2 Test- 1. Do you think the objective number 1 has been accomplished properly? vv 2.Is the solution correct? 3.Is the layout or format correct? 4.Do you think the objectives could be improved? Or if others could be added and which? 5. Is the idea of the images correct? 6.Would it be a good idea to highlight formulas? 7.Which of the objectives do you think are invalid? 8. Which of the methods used to accomplish objectives could be improved? 9.Do you accept that it would be a better idea to create a graph rather than a table showing the products expired? 10. Do you think that the images should be taken of the actual product and not the internet? 5,3 I could improve I think that if I took the actual photo of the product it would be more reliable as it is taken of the actual article and maybe the internet gives the incorrect picture which could lead to confusion and problems. It would also be better if I check the spelling using a dictionary rather that the computers dictionary as word feed into it might be incorrect and mean something else.