Reference no: EM132977665

Western Book Supply Case Study

Western Book Supply is a book retailing company which is situated in a large urban area. The company wants to specialize in supplying textbooks to students at local universities. This requires close liaison with the local colleges, ability to respond quickly to student demand, and the ability to handle large numbers of special requests. Currently the book store has been using manual methods of controlling sales and inventories, but the number of volumes sold has increased to the point that staff are having to work long hours to keep up the current level of service.

Alex B. Muse, the stores owner, has contacted your firm to develop a computer system to reduce the demanding work loads of staff. During an interview with Alex, she explains that the current manager has been reporting difficulties keeping track of stock levels.

The purchasing manager says that customers will frequently special order books that are not on the shelves. A few days later the customer will find the book on the shelves, buy it, and not inform the staff that they had a special order request for that book. This leads to the situation of books remaining on the special sales shelf, waiting for the special order customer to pick it up, while others, finding there are no books of this title on the shelf, either go elsewhere or place another special order. The result is overstocking, unsold books and unhappy customers. The manager also suggests that it is difficult to determine the numbers of books to order for a given subject because past records of sales are difficult to compile.

Local universities supply the book stores with book lists for most subjects. Some subjects, of course, don't require textbooks while others seem to regularly miss the deadline for making a recommendation and are not included on the list. The purchasing manager uses these lists to order the required stock, but since Western is not the only supplier books in the area, the purchasing manager needs to estimate the appropriate number of each book to order. To do this he wants to have a report that details the number of books ordered for subjects in the past and the quantity actually sold. Regular orders are sent either by mail or FAX to the supplier. With special orders, the manager immediately contacts the supplier of the appropriate book by telephone, orders the book and gives the supplier the appropriate purchase order number. If the supplier has a FAX the order is sent immediately otherwise it is mailed.

Currently a monthly inventory of stock on hand is taken and the sales staff prepare a weekly report of shortages. The purchasing manager uses these reports as an aid in making purchasing decisions.

When books or other goods are received from a supplier, the receiving clerk immediately checks goods received against the appropriate purchase order. If the order is completely filled, the purchase order is stamped closed and passed onto the accounting department. If the order is only partially completed, the amounts of each item received is recorded and attached to the purchase order. A notice of received goods is sent to accounting. After receiving the goods they are placed into pricing. The pricing clerk looks up the price of each book on his book list and attaches price labels to the books and they are placed on the shelves under the appropriate subject heading if the book is on a subject list. Books not belonging to specific area are placed in the general sales area. If the book is part of a special order, it is given to the sales clerk with a copy of the special purchase request. The pricing clerk also handles orders by phone or mail that occur from time to time. For customers with previously arranged credit, the goods are immediately sent along with an invoice. Those customers that have not been allowed credit are told the value of their purchase (by mail or phone) and the goods are held for a reasonable length of time for the payment to arrive.

The sales clerks are assigned to a cash register. They start their shift by picking up their cash tray from

accounting and they return their tray at the end of the shift with a copy of the customer receipts for their shift. When a customer requests a book which is not in stock, a special order form is completed and sent to purchasing. When the customer returns to pick up the special order, the clerk looks on the special order shelf to see if it has arrived and a sale is made if it is there. If the book is not found, the customer is asked to check again soon (the clerk often checks to see if any are on sale in the general or subject areas).

The accounts clerk handles Accounts Receivable and Payable. When invoices arrive, the accounts clerk reconciles them against the goods received. If all is OK a payment is made. If the invoice does not match the goods received, the clerk contacts receiving and/or the supplier to account for any discrepancies. Payments for customer purchases through phone or mail orders are either reconciled against the invoice or, if the goods have not been sent, the pricing clerk is advised that payment has been received so that the clerk can forward the goods with an invoice. Entries for all transactions are kept in an accounts ledger. The transactions for each day are totaled and a report is given to accounting.

Attachment:- WBS Case Study.rar