PART A: MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

SYSTEM PROPOSAL

Prepared By: Hunaid Sulemanji and John Adigun

Course: Management Information Systems (18.616.03)

Instructor: Carolyn M. Johnson

PART A - MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL

A1: Executive Summary

This Management Information System (MIS) proposes the integration of a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf database software package into the current client-server environment for shared access. The MIS will assist the Fleet Services department manage and centralize information exchange and access within the several major and minor facilities, which operate on a 24-hour basis.

The MIS is expected to support and control costs, reduce administrative and duplicate activities, increase productivity, provide meaningful data and information management, and provide general optimized tools to manage the resources and scope of fleet operations.

The implementation plan appears to be a simple process because the hardware is already in place, and COTS database software will be placed on a server that is shared by the departmental drive on the LAN. Current data is stored on the mainframe, and data exchange and management is a cumbersome process. Initially, the data from mainframe will be populated into the COTS database software through appropriate data interfaces. The major difficulties are anticipated in providing the proper training for the employees. Once on-line, the system will run parallel for six months with the mainframe system until all the bugs are finalized.

If implemented correctly, the following are the functional benefits of the system:

Provide a centralized data management rather than stand alone operation at each facility.
Monitor fleet availability and performance.
Provide life cycle analysis for replacement of vehicles.
Provide tools for improved efficiency, accuracy, and evaluating employee productivity.
Prevent multiple data entry.

A2: BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Name of Business

Fleet Services (a small department within a public electric utility company).

Background Description

The Fleet Services department is responsible for the acquisition and maintenance of the company fleet of approximately 1,200 units including automobiles, light trucks, heavy trucks, and construction equipment that provide the support for generation, transmission, and distribution core energy activities of the company. Approximately 1,000 of these are self-powered units. The equipment is serviced and maintained at 3 major and 4 smaller maintenance facilities to support a 24 hour-per-day, 7 day-per-week operation.

Vision Statement

To be the provider of choice for the internal customers of the company in matters of fleet services as the electric industry becomes competitive and deregulated.

Mission Statement

To make available to internal customers (the using departments) safe, functional, and reliable vehicles and equipment at an economical cost.

Goal of the Organization that this MIS will Support

The goal of the MIS will be to support and control costs, reduce administrative effort, increase productivity, provide meaningful data management, better utilization of fleet resources, provide overall efficiency improvement, and offer all the necessary tools to manage and optimize the entire scope of fleet operations.

Problems/New Capabilities this MIS will address

The existing operation uses several small, stand alone, in house programs that track a variety of activities (such as scheduled and unscheduled preventive maintenance, work/labor management, parts inventory, and data collection) but do not interface with each other.
Duplicate data entries required due to lack of proper interfaces (with internal applications and external corporate applications on the mainframe and the servers).
Critical cost information exists in multiple files, and needs to be centralized.
Developing a composite cost structure for a vehicle and equipment entails manual compilation of information from multiple sources.
Manual determination of vehicle repair history and life cycle costs analysis.
Reliability of vehicles and equipment is difficult to determine with several stand-alone systems.
Unable to evaluate employee productivity.

Functional Purpose of this MIS

Generate and monitor repair orders.
Allow the user to input either through key-entry or bar code, the general description of the vehicle and the work performed.
Track all labor and parts replacement costs associated with the job.
Track outside vendor and contractor parts, labor, and services associated with the job.
Automatically generate reminders based on predetermined preventive maintenance schedule, warranty status, and outstanding manufacturer’s recalls.
Monitor fleet availability and performance.
Track vehicles for repeats of the same or related repairs.
Generate estimates for customers.
Record all repair data as required by DOT regulations for Commercial Motor Vehicles.
Generate life-cycle analysis for replacement of vehicles.
Provide historical information for each vehicle in the fleet.
Provide tools for improved efficiency, accuracy, and evaluating employee productivity.

A3: MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

Primary Management Function

The primary management function is organization. The MIS will assist the department with a systematic organization of vehicle cost and tracking, scheduling of preventive maintenance programs, warranty, and recalls, and cost-benefit analysis of vehicles in the fleet.

Secondary Management Function

The secondary management function is planning. The MIS will enable the management to make informed decisions in planning the future acquisitions of vehicles and equipment, monitor the growth of the vehicles and department, and most importantly provide customer service at reasonable/low cost without compromising quality.

A4: LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

The MIS will support two levels of management

Top level management that consists of a manager of Fleet Services who makes aggregate decisions on issues such as budget approvals, major projects integration, and oversees the daily operation of the department.

The mid level and first-line management are the supervisors for different areas within Fleet Services who report to the manager. The supervisors and knowledge workers coordinate tasks between engineering, operations, administration, and maintenance by incorporating appropriate functional issues. In addition, this mid-level management is responsible for compiling data and information, coordinating labor issues and distribution, and reporting on daily activities of fleet applications.

Operational Information

The MIS will assist supervisors in scheduling and addressing preventive maintenance functions, recalls, and warranty issues, assessing the performance of vehicles, tracking labor and associated parts costs, tracking business costs associated with outside vendors and contractors, monitor fleet availability, generate estimates, and record data for regulatory agencies

Coordinative Information

The MIS will assist with proper cash flows and disbursement, preparation of comprehensive reports for informed decision making, assist in long term and short term financial and budgetary projections, and summarized reports on business operations.

Strategic Information

The MIS will forecast customer and departmental growth and analyze business applications.

A5: BOUNDARIES

Premises and assumptions made in proposing the MIS

During the development and implementation period of MIS, the following assumptions are made:

Competent team including other departmental interfaces will be available.
Increase in the demand for services.

Constraints or Limitations to Development and Implementation of MIS

Recruiting experience personnel and resources for the project.
Availability of vendors providing the proposed MIS is limited.
Budgetary funding for the MIS could be lost if projected deadline is not met.

Constraints or Limitations in Operating the MIS

Fleet Service management will ensure that training will be available for all members of the project team and the general workforce.
Data entry at the appropriate time for proper and efficient function of the MIS.

Specific Inclusions in, and exclusions for this MIS

MIS will provide answers and determine specific feasibility of a vehicle assignment with appropriate vehicle use.
Provide data and information on cost associated with life cycle of a given vehicle in a given period.

A6: MEASUREMENTS

Progress during the course of development will track in this way

Microsoft Project Management application will be used to monitor the progress of the project, and Lotus Notes will be used for sharing ideas and files.
Monthly meetings will be held at the facility to assess progress, and presentation of progress report will be expected.

The range of performance improvement of vehicles and equipment in the fleet to be at 96 to 99%.
Fleet optimization and utilization (98% availability).
Centralization of information will provide a 25% initial reduction in manual record keeping and administrative activities, with a goal of total elimination of manual record keeping.
Reduction of 30% in customer complaints.

Measurement to show benefit to the Organization

Fleet availability of 98 % (instead current 96.7%).
Improve customer service and satisfaction level to 97% (instead of current 95.6%).
The cost-recovery of MIS is expected to break even in two years.

Method for Measuring

The MIS will generate the following reports for measurement and accounting purposes:

Scheduled and non-scheduled preventive maintenance, warranty claims, and vehicle recall claims.
Vehicle utilization reports (hours, month, year, and life).
Vehicle life-cycle analysis.
Employment productivity.

Who will measure the MIS

Fleet manager and the engineering staff will assess the performance of the MIS internally.
The selected vendor will maintain the system with regular updates and functional upgrades for compatibility in the information age.

A7: SUMMARY TABLE

Problem	MIS Function	Performance Measure	Goal Support
Several stand alone programs with no interface	Provide a centralized interface to the stand alone operation	Centralization of information	Tool to manage and optimize the entire scope of fleet operations
Vehicle maintenance cost tracking.	Monitor fleet availability and performance	98% fleet availability (instead of current 96.7%)	Better utilization of fleet resources Improvement in overall efficiency.
Manual determination of vehicle repair history and life cycle cost analysis	Generate life cycle analysis for replacement of vehicles	Performance (96-99%) of vehicles and equipment in the fleet	Reduce administrative effort by having MIS perform the function
Unable to evaluate employee productivity	Provide tools for improved efficiency, accuracy, and evaluating employee productivity	Improve labor productivity measurement	Increase productivity
Duplicate data entry	Prevent multiple data entry	Duplicate data errors will be eliminated by 100%	Improved data availability and data management

A8: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

See Appendix A.

A9: APPROVAL OF MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL

I have read the above proposal and I approve it as it appears with modifications. I also approve development of requirements and proposed solutions for this project.

Name Date

PART B - MIS REQUIREMENTS

B1: APPROACH

Project Management

The manager and the engineering staff will be involved with the planning, management, and the implementation of the MIS. In addition, the computer services department will assist in integrating the MIS into the local area network system (LAN). Monthly meetings will be held to monitor progress regarding scheduling and planning for the month. Tracking, development, and implementation will be done with the use of Gantt chant for progress on a monthly basis.

Requirements Development

The requirement for the development of this MIS will be based on interviews with workers, supervisor, and engineers. Determination will be based on several questions such as user friendliness, system features, information availability, access to data, navigational requirements, and customization. In addition, we will also evaluate and research the industry standards and available object driven software package on the market -- commercial on the shelf (COTS) software.

Design

The design of this MIS is based on availability of COTS software and periodic object programming for customization purpose.

Test

There will be a parallel tests along side the existing system for a 90-day period. During this period, a record of problems will be generated and reviewed every two weeks during the course of the test.

Implementation

After 90 day testing, there will be another 45 days for fine tuning whatever problem might have been discovered during the testing period. Then, another 45 days of parallel testing again. After which, there will be three months period for full implementation will be done section by section.

B2: PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

Inputs this MIS will Process

Batch Transaction Files

Monthly repair and maintenance cost.
Inventory for the month.
Bar coding (labor and parts) for performance evaluation.

On-line Transaction Files

Vehicle productivity and fleet availability.
Cost analysis.
Outside vendor and contractor transactions.

On-line Commands

Shop scheduling (Scheduled and unscheduled PM’s).
Customer estimates and billing.
Fleet availability or down time tracking.
Warranty and recall management.

Types of Processing this MIS will Perform

Batch Processing

Monthly updates of outside vendor transactions.
Monthly updates of inventory.
Monthly employee productivity.
Customer billing.

On-line Processing

Shop scheduling.
Warranty and recall claims.
Customer data.
Parts and bins labels.

Hard Copy:

Repair order (scheduled and unscheduled).
Monthly preventive maintenance updates.
Warranty and Recall management.
Employee productivity and performance reports.
Vehicle utilization (hours and miles per month, year and life.
Vehicle and equipment replacement and disposal.
Inventory reports such as parts catalog and utilization.
Vehicle and equipment life cycle analysis and costs.
Customer estimates, billing, and information.
Outside vendor transaction.

Machine-Readable:

Perform daily back up on the server and CD storage device.

MIS Performance

On-line User Information:

Total number of on-line users: 250
Minimum number of simultaneous on-line users: 75
Maximum number of simultaneous on-line users: 250

Estimated Number of Transaction this MIS will Process:

Repair order 2500 per month
Warranty and recall orders 500 per month
Utilization orders 1500 per month
Parts and Inventory orders 500 per month
Customer estimates and services 500 per month
Outside vendor transactions 150 per month

Acceptable Response Time for Each Output of this MIS:

On-line queries: 10 seconds response time.
Monthly report: depending on the volume of transactions in the course of the month; at most 1 hour for report generation.
Customer billing 8 seconds per customer.
Employee productivity data download (monthly): 15 minutes to generate productivity report.

How Much Data this MIS will Service

Data File Type: Master file.

Data Type: Vehicle and equipment data, employee data, inventory data, customer billing data, and outside vendor/contractor data.

Number of on-line records on each storage medium:

Current and disposed vehicles and equipment, estimated to be 1500 records.
Employees’ data (current and retired), estimated to be 300 records.
Inventory and parts data, estimated 3000 records.
Customer data, estimated 100 records (each individual departments).
Outside vendor/contractor data, estimated 300 records.

Data Element Requirements

(* denotes a critical data element)

Data element 1: Vehicle Number*

Data element 2: Acquisition Date*

Data element 3: Manufacturer

Data element 4: Model

Data element 5: Year

Data element 6: Serial Number*

Data element 7: Type of Fuel

Data element 8: Assigned Location

Data element 9: Repair Location

Data element 10: Assigned Department*

Data element 11: Accounting Class

Data element 12: License Number*

Data element 13: In-Service Date*

Data element 14: In-Service Miles*

Data element 15: Out-of-Service Date

Data element 16: Out-of-Service Miles

Data element 17: PM Data and Scheduling*

Data element 18: Vehicle Wheelbase

Data element 19: Registered Weight

Data element 20: GVWR

Data element 21: GCWR

Data element 22: Pre-defined Amortization Data

Data element 23: Pre-defined Depreciation Data

Data element 24: Parts and Inventory Data

Data element 25: Labor Data

Data element 26: Employee Number*

Processing Requirements

Unique Processing Environment:

Must support floating-point arithmetic.
Must interface with Lotus Notes electronic mail system.
Must be able to generate results based on customization.

Daily backup of the data on CD storage device.
Original software package shall be duplicated and stored off-site.
Computer Services department will backup the server at the end of business day.

Security Requirements

Password protection is required to operate the MIS at any level.
Daily and comprehensive system virus checks.
Firewall protection since the MIS will be located on the LAN.
Limited external access (remote access) to the system for pre-determined employees.

B3: SYSTEM FLOW

Step 1: Input of vehicle information (such as purchase date and cost, vehicle data, vendor data, etc.) in the system at the time of acquisition.

Step 2: Schedule preventive maintenance (PM) at predetermined ranges (mileage, months, and hours).

Step 3: Unscheduled maintenance (breakdowns).

Step 4: Assign tasks to employee (mechanic) and log all necessary data (such as mileage, date of work, associated parts and labor costs, and employee data).

Step 5: Update vehicle files and release vehicles in service.

Step 6: Prepare Fleet Availability report.

Step 7: Generate report of work performed and associated costs to customers for billing.

Step 8: Account Receivable.

Step 9: Generate life cycle analysis report.

Step 10: Based on life cycle analysis determine disposal or retention.

PART C: PROPOSED SOLUTION

C1: Software

Software Strategy

Functions Performed By the Software:

Function Software

Vehicle Acquisition COTS

Scheduled & Unscheduled Maintenance COTS

Employee Productivity COTS

Bar-code, Key Entry, and GUI COTS

Fleet Availability & Optimization COTS

Outside Vendor & Contractor Service COTS

Cost Tracking COTS

Customer Estimates & Billing COTS

Reporting to Federal Agencies (DOT) Custom

Reporting to Internal Departments Custom

Life Cycle Analysis Custom

Historical Information COTS

Inventory COTS

Warranty/Recall Management COTS

Licensing & Registration COTS

C2: Hardware

The computer hardware used for this MIS will meet industry standards. A client-server environment will be used. Client computers are HP 5th generation Intel processors. The server configuration is IBM RS/6000. Operating system is Windows NT and is setup on the LAN with Novell NetWare 4.01. A HP CD storage device will be used for backups. HP Laser Printers provide report generation support, and are connected through the company LAN (client printers).

C3: Back-up and Recovery

The Computer Services department will back-up the server at the end of each business day. The assigned IT personnel within the Fleet Services will back-up the data on the external CD storage device connected through the parallel port. In case of recovery, Computer Services will provide server recovery within 24 hours. A CD storage recovery will provide immediate support.

C4: Training

The supplier/developer of the software will provide two-week training to all employees. In addition, training manuals and on-line help will be provided with the system. Other in-depth training for IT personnel will be available in form of classes and conferences.

C5: Conversion

Current data resides on the mainframe and conversion will be necessary. The software developer will provide appropriate interfaces for the data to be converted from the mainframe application to server application.

C6: Implementation Plan

See attached Gantt Chart

C7: Organizational Impact

a). Primarily the MIS will affect fleet Services department. In addition, several other key departments (that need to share financial and management data) such as Accounting, Purchasing, Using Departments, Computer Services, Corporate Administration will also be affected by the MIS. The MIS will be able to provide centralized data management and overall efficiency of day to day management for Fleet Services. The MIS will provide the necessary accounting and other relevant data to other departments in the company for effective decision making.

b). The MIS will take the place of current stand-alone operations by centralizing data management and therefore no organizational changes would be required.

c). Formal policy changes should not be required. Policy related to the proper use of system, maintenance, and security will stay and be in-effect for computer applications.

d). Procedures such as data input by the mechanics, supervisors, engineers, and management will be required on timely basis because of transition from the stand alone operations to centralized operations, schedule backup shall be performed by the computer services for the system on the server and the internal IT group. Procedures for data management and interface by other departments will also be required for accessing the MIS.

e). On-line applications will provide optimized fleet applications and management. It will provide up to date transactions and generate life cycle analysis on individual vehicles and improve assessment of productivity.

f). With electric industry deregulation around the corner, the lack of proper data and information will make the Fleet Services department vulnerable to competition, and eventually lead to the demise of the departments services through outsourcing.

MIS PROJECT APPROVAL

Name Date