Reference no: EM131195282

Tommy and Tom (TT) Inc. sells hundreds of products and uses over 10,000 components in its products.  The company knows precisely what parts are needed for each product.  They maintain a list of suppliers who supply one or more of the components.  Each supplier is evaluated on price/unit, quality, and reliability for each part it supplies  (implies, a supplier can supply more than one part but the supplier is evaluated for each part separately).   Each supplier is then ranked (that is, if there are 5 suppliers then each supplier will be ranked Number 1 to 5. One implies highest preference). The new system that the management is considering will require suppliers to update their lead-time, and minimum and maximum order quantity.  For each part there is a re-order level.  If the number of units falls below that re-order level then a new purchase order is released to a supplier based on the rank.  The system maintains when an order was placed, expected delivery date, and actual delivery date.   On receipt, parts are evaluated again for quality. A batch can be rejected if the quality is bad. If the parts supplied is certified "OK" then a supplier is a paid immediately through electronic money transfer.

TASK:

• Identify various entities and the relationships and draw the E-R diagram. Convert the E-R diagram into tables (relational model). 
• What if an order can be supplied in small quantities at various times (that is, a large order can be split into many small orders).  How does your E-R diagram and table structure change?