Family Farm Fresh Foods is a company that grows organically certified vegetables. The company was started by Jack MacDonald who was later joined by his wife Jane. The company started off as a small farm but recently they have been having trouble. This is majorly due to the lack of an automated system hence Jack has to take orders manually and this is slow, cumbersome and very time-consuming. It is for this reason that an information system needs to be installed and used to automate the ordering and delivery of the products.
From the study, Family Farm Fresh Foods has two managers who are Jane and Jack. Jane is responsible for orders and dealing with customers while Jack is responsible for the production part of the business.
There are several business functions of the company that need automation. These include:
Procurement is the process of acquiring an object or a service from another vendor. For Family Farm Fresh Foods, there are several things that the farm could use from their neighbors. These include things such as manure which are running out and can no longer support the crops produced.
As it is currently, the orders are done manually where Jack takes the orders on a paper form all those who want to order even if the order is similar every week. This is frustrating the customers since in case of a steady supply, one will have to be making the same order every week. Other than that, if the paper used for writing were to be misplaced, then there would be no other point of reference to know who ordered what.
As is, a customer has to pick up their vegetable order from the farm. This is a bit inconveniencing for the customers since one will not be sure of the time the order is ready in order to pick it. Other than that, some would prefer to have their orders delivered directly on their doorstep. Such customers would forego the chance of buying the produce just because they have to collect from the firm themselves.
Problem description
The problem faced by Family Farm Fresh Foods is the lack of a management information system to fulfill their needs and manage their customer relations. In this case, the company uses a manual system which affects both their operation and efficiency. The problems encountered due to the current system include:
The proposed system is expected to solve the issues the company is currently facing with their customers. The expected solution should be able to:
Enable customers make their orders online and specify how long they need the order or if they make it a regular they can specify when they do not want the order
Enable the company make an inventory of the available products such that they can serve all the customers efficiently
Enable customers know when their orders are ready for pick up such that there is no congestion at the pickup point hence avoid the issue of customers fighting over the same product.
The system will have several capabilities to be used by both the company and the customers.
There are several tasks that make up the project. These tasks can be summarized as listed below
|
Number |
Task |
Predecessor |
Duration(days) |
|
1 |
Meet farm staff |
1 |
|
|
2 |
Conduct staff interviews |
1 |
5 |
|
3 |
Review farm records |
2 |
4 |
|
4 |
Observe business operations |
2 |
3 |
|
5 |
Interview customers |
3, 4 |
2 |
|
6 |
Analyze accounting process |
5 |
3 |
|
7 |
Study orders and payment transactions sample |
6 |
2 |
|
8 |
Undertake field work |
7 |
2 |
|
9 |
Prepare a report |
8 |
2 |
|
10 |
Review |
9 |
1 |
Assuming the project begins at the beginning of next month which is on first January.
Using the tasks as outlined in the table above, then the critical path is as follows.
The critical path is 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10.
The overall duration of the project is expected to be 22 days if there are no delays in the implementation of the system.
There are several risks that can be associated with the project.
Experience of project team members – Experiences and older team members can largely reduce project failure. Therefore, there is a risk of project failure if young and less experienced team members are the ones used in the implementation of the project.
Risk relating to project plan definition – If the project is not well defined, there is a risk of implementing tasks that are not really required for the project and also of implementing the task wrongly or the project not being completed due to the lack of a proper direction
Risk relating to the definition of project size – If the project size is not well defined, it can lead to a wrong direction of the project as a whole. This leads to an increase in the time spent on the project, continual change of the project size and project costs can also increase
Risk relating to accordance of project goals – This can be between the team members, project managers and suppliers. If the goals of the project are not defined clearly, at the beginning of the project, it will be very difficult for the project to attain any results (?urkovi? & Rakovi?, 2009).
Technical risks – This arises if the project uses a technology that is not yet finished or a new technology comes in later in the project. To counter this, alternative solutions should be carried out or the team members can endeavor to know more about the technology in in order to make use of them in the system.
Legal risks – These are risks related to the legitimacy of the system to be used or the project as a whole. It involves the evaluation of whether the project complies to the set legal rules regarding its caliber of projects
Political risks – They are some of the external risks that cannot be controlled by the project team and the organization as a whole. These risks arise from factors outside the system such as the political environment of where the organization is located.
Project complexity – If the complexity of the project is not well defined to the team. The [project might take up additional resources such as time to complete the project and additional training and advisory resources to the team.
Faster services – With the use of an information system, Family Farm Fresh Foods will be able to provide faster services to their customers since they will have all the information needed at hand.
Reduced costs – As opposed to going around collecting orders which is an addition on the overhead costs of the company, with the new system orders will be made online hence no need to go from door to door collecting orders
Efficiency – The system will increase the efficiency of the company since the customer will no longer be frustrated about being asked for an order when they order the same things every day. The system will keep the data and all one has to do is refer to the system for the specification of the orders.
Custom information – The system will provide users with the information each needs to make a decision (Sylvan, 2017). This is to say the system will be able to give each user only what they need to see or what they want to see at the moment.
Real-time information – With an information system in place, data is immediately converted to information therefore, in this case, any change in the inventory or orders or in the operations can quickly be seen by the interested parties.
Adaptability – The information system is adaptable since it can grow with the need. That is to say that individual parts of the system can be grown and expanded without interrupting the system as a whole.
From the above, it is clear that the project is feasible and therefore the company should begin planning on how to work on the project in order to increase their productivity.
However, for the system to work better the company should consider implementing the project in phases as they test the effectiveness of the already implemented bits of the system. This implementation in bits will enable the company to get a feel of the system as they go along and also to determine what is the most important and prioritize in order to ensure that the implementation of the system is smooth and done as effectively as possible.
?urkovi?, O. & Rakovi?, L., 2009. Risks in Information Systems Development Projects. Management Information Systems, 4(1), pp. 13-19.
Sylvan, R., 2017. Tangible Benefits of Information Systems. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/tangible-benefits-information-systems-50155.html
[Accessed 12 December 2017].
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