Introduction

Fundamentally, warehouse management is the physical management of inventory. In

some cases, inventory may be stored for an extended time. In other warehouses, that
implement just in time practices, inventory experiences rapid turn over and the
warehouse functions as a distribution center. A warehouse can contain raw materials,
work-in-process inventory, finished goods, supplies, and possibly repair parts. As with
other elements in the any distribution system, the objective of the warehouse is to
minimize costs and maximize customer service. To do this, efficient warehouse
operations perform the following:

• Provide timely customer service.

• Keep track of items so they are located readily and correctly.
• Minimize the type of physical effort and thus the costs of moving goods in and
out of storage.
• Provide communication links with customers.

The costs of operating a warehouse can be broken down into capital and operating costs.
Capital costs are those of space and materials handling equipment. The space needed
depends on the peak quantities that must be stored, the methods of storage, and the need
for ancillary aisles, docks, offices etc. The major operating cost is labor, and the measure
of labor productivity is the number of units that an operator can move in a day. This
depends on the type of material handling equipment used, the location and accessibility
of stock, warehouse layout stock location system, and the order-picking system used.

Warehouse activities

Operating a warehouse involves several processing activities. The efficiency of a

warehouse depends on how efficiently it can perform the following activities:

• Receive goods.
• Identify the goods.
• Dispatch goods to storage.
• Hold goods. Keep goods in storage and under proper protections until needed.
• Pick goods. Select goods from storage and bring them to a marshalling area.
• Marshall the shipments. Combine goods that contribute to a single order. Check
for omissions or errors. Update order records.
• Dispatch the shipments. Package orders, prepare shipping documents and load
goods onto the right vehicle.
• Operate an information system. A record must be maintained for each item in
stock showing the quantity on hand, quantity received, quantity issued, and
location in the warehouse. This system can be very simple, depending on
minimum of written information and human memory, or it may be a sophisticated
computer-based system.
These are activities that take place in any warehouse. The complexity depends on the
number of part numbers, quantities of each part number and the number of orders
received and filled.

Abstract
Inventory control plays an important role in supply chain management. Properly
controlled inventory can satisfy customers’ demands, smooth the production plans, and
reduce the operation costs; yet failing to budget the inventory expenses may lead to
serious consequences. The bullwhip effect, observed in many supply chain management
cases, causes excessive inventory due to information distortion, i.e. the order amount is
exaggerated while a minor demand variation occurs, and the information amplified
dramatically as the supply chain moves to the upstream. In this paper, one of the main
causes of bullwhip effect, order batching, is considered. A simplified two-echelon supply
chain system, with one supplier and one retailer that can choose different replenishment
policies, is used as a demonstration. Two types of inventory replenishment methods are
considered: the traditional methods (the event-triggered and the time-triggered ordering
policies), and the statistical process control (SPC) based replenishment method. The
results show that the latter outperforms the traditional method in the categories of
inventory variation, and in the number of backlog when the fill-rate of the prior model is
set to be 99%. This research provides a different approach to inventory cost-down other
than the common methods like: information sharing, order batch cutting, and lead time
reduction.

The main problem faced by the production & stores is the poor availability of spare parts
of various machines. The non-availability often leads to loss in production time.

Objective

The objective of the current project is to design a user friendly inventory management
system that would minimize stock outs and at the same time help in maintaining optimum
inventory levels according to the criticality of the material.

Visual Basic

Microsoft Visual Basic is the world’s most popular rapid application development tool
for creating
standalone software components including executable programs, ActiveX Controls and
COM components.
Visual Basic family is designed to offer powerful programming capabilities based on an
easy to learn andeasy to use programming language. Visual Basic development system is
the most productive tool for
creating fast business solutions for Windows and the Web. A comprehensive, rapid
application
development environment helps developers quickly create and deploy client/server
applications, plus easily
program for the Internet using familiar Visual Basic programming tools and techniques.
Visual Basic 6.0
now supports the Microsoft universal data access architecture with ActiveX Data
Objects(ADO).

Introduction

In most organizations the computer is a very valuable resource. Among the

resources that a
computer has are processing speed, storage space, printers and information. The
management of these
resources is performed largely by a type of system software called Operation System.
There are two types
of software
System software and application software. System software is a set of programs that
manage the resources
of a computer system. Application software on the other hand, performs specific tasks for
the computer
user. Application programs such as spreadsheets are used for many general purposes,
whereas applications
such as the one, which is being developed by us i.e the DBMS for IGNOU is very
specific in the problems
it solves. Developing computer programs is expensive because the programming must be
done buy
humans and not by computers. These can be developed using third generation
programming languages like
C, Cobol and Visual Basic
etc.

“Database” as one single word, is an alternative terminology for data

management software.
“Data base” as two works, refers to the highest level of the hierarchy of data
organization. As students of
businesspersons, we may want to keep information on taxes, customers, inventory and
personal data on the

computer system. With data management system, you can create and maintain a database
and extract
valuable information from the database. To use data management or database software,
you first identify
the format of the data, and then design a display format that will permit interactive entry
and revision of the
database. Once the database has been created, its records can be deleted or revised and
other records can be
added to the database.

All commercial data management software packages permit the creation and
manipulation of
databases, but what the user sees on the screen may be vastly different for the various
packages.

However the concepts embodied in these database packages are very similar. The
conceptual converge that
follows is generic and can be applied to all database packages. Defining fields to store
data establish the
structure of database file. We use the CREATE and MODIFY commands to define a field
of which
consists of the name, type and width. Field names can be up to many characters long.
They must begin
with an alphabet and can’t contain embedded blank spaces. Letters, numbers, and
underscores are
permitted. The field width is the maximum number of characters or digits that are to be
contained in the
field.

Thousands of commercially available software packages run on

microcomputers, but the most
popular business software is the family of productivity software packages. These
programs are the
foundation of personal computing in the business world. The current software being
designed and
implemented for IGNOU by us is also confirming to such productivity standards. It is
designed to0
increase the efficiency and decrease the workload of the employees working with the
university. It is a
very user-friendly program, which can boast of a comprehensive user manual, and it
generates easy to
understand graphical outputs. Any required report can be easily generated just by the
click of a button.

Making software is the analysis, design construction, verification, and

management of the
technical entities. Before software can be built, the system in which it resides must be
understood. To
accomplish this the overall objective must be determined, the role of hardware, software,
people, database,
procedures and other system elements must be elicited, analyzed, specified, modeled,
validated and
managed. Computer software is the product that the software engineers design and build.
It encompasses
programs that execute within a computer of any size and architecture, documents that
encompass hard copy
and virtual

forms and data that combine numbers and text but also includes presentation of pictorial.

Software’s impact on our society and culture continues to be profound. As its

importance grows,
the software community continually attempts to develop technologies that will make it
easier, faster and
less expensive to build high quality computer programs. Some of these technologies are
targeted at specific
application domain while some are broad based. Software may be applied in any situation
for which a pre-
specified set of procedural set of procedural steps has been defined. Information content
and determinacy
are important factors in determining the nature of the software application. Content refers
to meaning and
form of incoming and outgoing information. For example many business applications use
highly structured
input data and produce formatted reports.

Complete System Analysis and Design

From the inception of an idea for a software system, until it is implemented and delivered
to a customer,
and even after that, the system undergoes gradual development and evolution. The
software is said to have
a life cycle composed of several phases. In
Traditional “Waterfall model” each phases has well-defined starting and ending points,
with clearly
identifiable deliverables to the next phase. Here for the project being submitted I have
followed “Waterfall
Model”. The Waterfall Model consists of following phases.

1. Requirements analysis and specification:

Requirements analysis is usually the first phase of large-scale software

development project. It is undertaken after a feasibility study has been performed to
define the precise costs and benefits of a software system. The purpose of this phase is to
identify and document the exact requirements for the system. The customer, the
developer, a marketing organization or any combination of the three may perform such
study. In cases where the requirements are not clear e.g., for a system that is never been
defined, more interaction is required between the user and the developer. The
requirements at this stage are in end-user terms.

2. Design and specification:

Once the requirements for a system have been documented, software engineers
design a software
system to meet them. This phase is sometime split into two sub-phases: architectural or
high-level design.
High-level design deals with overall module structure and organization, rather than the
details of the
modules. The high level design is refined by designing each module in detail. Separating
the requirements
and analysis phase from the design phase is instance of fundamental “what/how”
dichotomy that we

Encounter quite often in computer science. The general principle involves makings a
clear distinction
between what the problem is and how to solve the problem. In this case, the requirement
phase attempts to
specify what the problem is. There are usually many ways that the requirements may be
met, including
some solutions that do not involve the use of computers at all. The purpose of the design
phase is to
specify a particular software system that will meet the stated requirements. Again there
are usually many
ways to build the specified system. In the coding phase, which follows the design phase,
a particular
system is coded to meet the design specification.

3. Coding and module testing:

 This is the phase that produces the actual code that will be delivered to the
customer as the
running system. The other phases of the life cycle may also develop code, such as
prototypes, tests, and
test drivers, but these are for use by the developer. Individual modules developed in this
phase are also
tested before being delivered to the next phase.

The Client/Server Architecture

The client server architecture involves multiple computers connected in a network. The
computers that process applications and request services from another computer are
called clients. The computer designed top process the database is called the server. All
users have their own computers to process applications. Ina a database environment, the
clients may communicate with the server by means of programming interfaces called
middleware. These interfaces provide connectivity between applications and databases.

Roles for client and server computers

Client functions Server functions

Manages the user interface
Accepts data from the user
Processes application logic
Generates database requests
Transmits database requests to server
Receives results from server
Accepts database requests from clients
Processes database requests
Formats result and transmit to client
Performs integrity checking
Maintains database overhead data
Provides concurrent access control

4. BIBILIOGRAPHY

System analysis and Design

-Senn

Fundamentals of Database Systems

-Elmasri

Software Engineering Concepts

- Robert Pressman