CASE STUDY PART 1 INTRODUCTION Eat Organic Food produces organically certified foods…. 1 answer below »
CASE STUDY PART 1 INTRODUCTION Eat Organic Food produces organically certified foods. It initially started by using Ian’s backyard. It was a large backyard…that had also made use of neighbours’ unused land. The business prospect has expanded in recent years with return of Ian to his family property that historically has been used as a dairy farm. Although it was a major commitment, Ian has turned much of that land into a vegetable garden. He did not do this all by himself. He has employed farm hands to assist on the farm for several years. The range and volume of produce and the number of customers is now making it difficult for Ian to keep the track of things. An information system may provide a way to help manage the increasing complexities of the business. BACKGROUND BRIEFING The Early Days – Growing up on the Farm Ian Jones believes that he had been born to be a farmer, following as he did, in his fathers’ and grandfathers’ love and passion for growing their own food. Of course there were also differences…especially as Ian was now passionately dedicated to growing vegetables rather than attending to dairy cattle. Ian grew great organic vegetables without the use of any pesticides or artificial fertilizer. He practiced companion planting to help protect crops from insect attack, and he cycled different crops from year to year to aid soil health. Ian carried in his memory an immense body of information about soil types, weather, seasons, crops, crop rotations, soil preparation, and composting. Ian still had some cows and had acquired chickens to provide manure, as well as a source of milk and eggs. Top Dollar Ian had given up his occupation as a mechanic when he returned to the farm to dedicate time to his farming activities. He is now committed to growing and selling vegetables. People happily payed top dollar because of the high quality of food, and the “organically grown” status that it held. Note: This case study is to be used throughout this Session to answer questions in set activities, which will be compiled into a report. Part A of the report, an “Initial Investigation” is to be submitted at the end of Week 6. The final report (including your Part A adjusted after marker feedback) is to be submitted in Week 12. You should use all relevant parts of the case study to inform your answers for the report. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 2 Ian did not sell his produce through local vegetable market. He did not have to, as his customers came to him! Customers would phone through an order the day before they wanted to come and pick them up and Ian would work through the long list of vegetables in his mind’s eye that he knew he had on offer, ready for harvest. This could take a lot longer than most people wanted to spend on the task, because Ian should work through the list from start to finish, even though there were some products that various customers never, ever bought, never wanted, and were never going to buy. Ian would patiently chat to each customer and he enjoyed the conversation. But, it was time consuming, taking him away from attending to his fields. In reality, while all of the customers liked Ian, and loved his produce, many really wished to have a quicker and easier way of placing their orders without the need to always be asked directly by Ian about products that they were never, ever going to purchase. Many customers were frustrated that Ian would always take a long time to write down the vegetables being ordered, especially those clients who purchased the ”same order” every week as a regular, weekly, customer. Surely, they thought to themselves, there must be a better way. The Produce Pick Up Customers would drop by to pick up their weekly box of produce. This was fine in the early days while his farm was quite small, but things had escalated dramatically in the last few years. Ian had a growing body of farm hands to assist him. His farm and produce was well regarded but popularity and demand was now causing congestion at the pick-up area. Ian was considering the practicalities of beginning a home delivery service direct to customers. In principle, Ian would be able to manage the growing customer base as he had almost unlimited access to land and water and sun, but he was now experiencing difficulties organising all of the food boxes for his customers. The personal details for his customers including their names, phone numbers and addresses where all kept in a “Customer Book” in the barn, but he had generally made little use of this as customers would typically ring him to place an order…and increasingly such calls were coming in at inconvenient times while he was attending to the garden. Ian and Ruth Ruth is married to Ian and is fully supportive of his philosophy and approach to growing vegetables. She knew in her heart that it was scalable and that a similar approach could be used for farms in other locations to serve different geographical areas. She knew, however, that some of Ian’s business practices in dealing with customers would need to be documented to enable standardisation, and altered to be made more efficient… for both farm and customers. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 3 The Farm Hands Ian and Ruth agreed that they should each focus on a different aspect of the business. Ian would attend to all aspects of production and harvesting, while Ruth would oversee all aspects of dealing with customers, their orders, their payments and their order pick-ups. Both were happy by this because Ian was skilled and enjoyed the farming aspects and Ruth was skilled in customer relations and service due to her previous work in accountancy and finance. Ruth was keen to acquire an Information System to handle the customer base, their orders, and their bills. She knew that it had other potentials to ease their business dealings and that new and emerging technologies could also be beneficial. Ian, however, remained unconvinced of the benefits of computers. The number of people working on the farm had grown substantially. On the customer side of things, Chris, Christina, Cathy and Charlie were sometimes taking orders from customers by phone, and reporting the orders directly to Ruth. These four people also assisted at times with gardening activities along with some other staffs who were dedicated to gardening activities. A collection of lists had been written up for some of the customers who would always simply order “their usual” (subject to availability and season)…and this collection of lists had been stuck to the wall in the barn next to the phone book to aid quicker processing. The people who were on these lists came to be referred to as “The Regulars”. To acknowledge such regular support, each was given an automatic 20% discount off the cost of their purchase. As the produce available each week was subject to change due to weather and harvest readiness, there was sometimes confusion about what was actually available (or not) and so increasingly there were instances of customers being disappointed when they picked up their produce because it was not always what they had expected to receive. Sometimes there was also confusion about who had payed, or not payed, or partially payed. Sam and Samantha both attended to the accounts side of things, and again, answered directly to Ruth on this account. As the business had increased in size there were apparent inconsistencies emerging in how payments were made, sometimes in cash and sometimes by credit. There had also been some unpleasant scenes at the pick-up point due to too many customers arriving at the same time, only to create a traffic jam. Arguments had erupted over confusion of who was to take away which box of vegetable produce. Ruth hired Mark and Marsha to take over the pick-up. They made the firm decision that customers would no longer be able to come and pick up their box of produce, unless specifically pre-arranged…but would have it delivered to their home. An imposed homedelivery service. Dirk was also hired as an assistant for both Mark and Marsha to do some of the heavy lifting and sorting of the customer produce boxes. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 4 There was no risk of spoilage due to a delivery needing to be left at a customer’s door because Ian had acquired individual customer eskies good enough to keep all things cool for 48 hours. Deliveries could thus be made to a client on any day of the week, but there was a need to minimise the number of trips to make the deliveries. Customers either lived North, South, East, West, or “close” to the “Eat Organic Food” Farm. There will be more to say about delivery timetables later in the case study. Ian was saddened by how some aspects of the business had evolved. He was still committed to producing the best possible products for his clients, but there was a need to find some ways of better managing it all. In particular, there was a need to release himself from the client side of the business to attend to the production aspects, which he had always taken pleasure in. To assist on the production side of things Ian had hired Noel, Noeletta, Mick and Netta. Each answered to Ian directly. Their specific tasks were to assist in all manner of the gardening such as weeding, planting, watering, fertilizers, picking and pruning. To assist on machinery part of farming and delivery, Ian had moreover hired Tim, Terry and Tina. Terry and Tina are both skilled at operating all manner of vehicles and machinery used on the farm. They may be directed by Ian to perform any of the tasks performed using such machines but for practical purposes they both answer to Tim who is the manager of the tractors and all other farm machinery which he both operates and maintains. Tim answers directly to Ian on all production aspects, but to Ruth on aspects of customers, orders and delivery issues. Ian, having worked previously as a mechanic, can assist Tim if need be for maintenance tasks, but he is really seeking to dedicate himself to the production of vegetables. Recently, Ian and Ruth have thought about their son, John. He is studying marketing at Southern Cross University and he is in his final year of his study. They thought he can contribute to their marketing aspect to promote organic food and the business as well. Ian and Ruth have spoken to him and he is on-board to help them from marketing perspective and also help them with the new information system that should be designed for their business. He is working alone and reporting to both Ian and Ruth. However, he can access to different information in relation to their produces, staff and any other information which may be useful for promoting their business. Interview with Ruth You have been employed as a consultant to “Eat Organic Food” to analyses their needs for an Information Systems. You were able to catch Ruth for a quick orientation to the needs of the farm, especially the customer side of things. You were also able to obtain some insight about future possibilities for expanding the farm. A record of your interview with Ruth is provided below; “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 5 You: Tell me about your farm and your business model. I’m especially interested in what kind of information management you think that you need. Ruth: Ian is fantastic with all aspects of farming, and to be honest, he is good with customers too, but he gets side tracked too often in chatting. Besides that, I know many of the customers are frustrated that placing an order, and sometimes even just picking it up, can take much longer than people want to invest, due to all the time spent chatting. You: I thought that Ian enjoyed dealing with the customers because he is proud to display the quality of the vegetables to them, and that he likes the interaction in general. Ruth: That’s true, but the truth is that we need to develop a more efficient and effective way of taking orders from customers, and then getting those orders to them. We know that we produce the best vegetables in the area and Ian has that side of things in control, but we must develop a better way of meeting customers’ expectations for placing and receiving orders. You: I have been meaning to ask about that. Why has there been an insistence that orders are always taken by phone? Ruth: It has always been done that way, which was fine when Ian had the farm to himself, and served just a few of the locals, but it has become unwieldly. There is no reason, at least from the business side of things, to insist on phone based order taking. I am of the view that customers should at least have the option of placing orders through a regular menu that they could drop off into our letter box…or better still, that they could somehow place orders using the internet. You might be able to offer us some ideas on that. You: You mean using a web page for the farm and placing orders. You could have an on-screen web form that customers select from. That would be pretty easy to produce. And it is super user-friendly if designed correctly. There would also be scope to have it update regularly depending upon availability of produce. Ruth: Yes. That would have to be easier for some of our customers, and there may even be other benefits from such a process. You: Well of course. For example, if you logged the customers, you could have the web form automatically update to indicate what had been selected in their previous order to help speed things up, or if you knew “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 6 that a customer had a passion for certain produce that was rarely available; you could highlight it for them when it was available. Ruth: That sounds great, but Ian usually doesn’t indicate what is available until just the day before. You: Why is that? Does it have to be like that? I understand that Ian may not know a month in advance, or even a week….but surely there is scope to give an indication a few days in advance, at least for some of the produce range. Ruth: I agree, but you will have to discuss that side of things with Ian. I know, for example, some things like potatoes and carrots and ginger and turmeric Ian has a very good feel for how they are growing, and how they are going for harvest, but there are other things, such as tomatoes, that he sometimes seems happily surprised at, having ripened in a day or two. You: I thought that “ripened” referred to fruit rather than vegetables. And by the way, I wanted to ask, you don’t seem to have much fruit. Is that correct? Ruth: Well, yes and no. We do have some fruit trees. There are some apple and pear trees, but they are very small scale and not really productive yet, though what we do get is delicious. We have various berries that are pretty constant, and in season we have mangoes and avocadoes and quite a range actually now that I think about it. We even have some almond nut trees, but they don’t seem to grow so well for us here. We have enough for ourselves, family, and give some to our close friends, but we have avoided bringing these into our produce for sale. These are not a prime focus of business, at least not yet. The fruit that we do produce is fantastic but there are some major differences involved in doing large scale fruit production compared to vegetables. In some ways Ian has used fruit as companion planting rather than an orchid approach. We have talked about doing so, but it would just be too difficult to organise with all of our other things. I know that Ian wants to expand into this as well, and he has had discussions with some fruit growers in the area to see if we could arrange something with them. You: You mean that they provide the fruit and you provide the vegetables? Ruth: Well, yes and no. We do seek to use their farms and fruit trees, but Ian would only take this on if those farms also embraced the organic -only approach that we have implemented here. To do so would be possible “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 7 in theory, but at the moment it would just be impossible for practical reasons You: What are those practical reasons? Ruth: Well, Ian is the brains trust. He knows so much! And he seems to understand exactly what is going on for his plants, but most of it is all in his head. We would need to capture all of his knowledge and approach and disseminate it to all of the farm staff in a controlled manner. You: An information system could help you do that! And what did you say about organic-only? Ruth: We are committed to being fully organic. All the produce needs to be dedicated organic only, grown and processed without the use of any pesticides or chemical based fertilizers. There are implications from this because we need to be able to show through documentation that only natural, organic materials have been used at all times. That in itself can cause extra headaches trying to keep track of all the paper work. You: I assure you that if you need to create, track and keep documentation for those things then a computer based information system can help. This of course is a very different issue to servicing customers’ orders, but it could possibly be part of a single information system, or, you may have two systems customised for these two different purposes. Ruth: Fantastic, that sounds great. I knew that you would be able to help us with ideas. I don’t mean to be rude, but I will have to go soon, I have an appointment with some bush regenerators who are doing some work on our riparian zone down by the river. You can come along if you like. You may learn something. You: I’m sorry. I know that is a great offer, but I am double booked. I would really like you to show me another time if that’s possible. For now, one last question. I understand that Ian grew up here, is that right? Ruth: Yes. Born on the farm actually. He has very fond memories of his grandfather, who took care of him after his parent died in an accident. His grandfather only died a few years back and it was with his passing that Ian made the decision to come back here and take over, as it was, but he has changed things to be his way with a focus on the vegetable farming. You: I am sure that his grandfather would be proud of what Ian is doing with the place, if he could see it. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 8 Ruth: (laughing) He sees it all right! He wanted to be turned into compost after his death and Ian would have been happy to oblige, but the government would not allow it, so he did the next best thing. (Ruth bent down, picked up some soil and crumbled it in her right hand as she slowly circled it before her. The soil gently fell back to the Earth.) Ruth: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, lay me to rest, in land that I trust. His grandfather is still here and sees everything that happens. You left in your car and headed back to the office. You were not sure about all of the business practices, but you knew that their motivations were good. On the front seat bedside you, Dirk had placed a box of vegetables along with some fruit that you feel privileged to receive…”like part of the family or a close friend” you thought as you picked up an apple and took a bite….CRUNCH. Crisp, sweet, juicy… Ok, so they know how to grow fruit as well as vegetables…you think to yourself. CRUNCH! “If these guys could produce fruit like this at sufficient scale to go with their vegetables…” You look at the apple, with fresh brittle texture gleaming in the light filtering through the trees and into the car. “This is going to be a great project” you say out loud. “The people are great, I know that I can help them, and I’m even getting prize winning produce thrown in as well” You are already imagining various possibilities, but first, there is a need to address the basic task at hand. There is a need for an information system to help customers to place an order and to then receive it. And there is also the issue of certification for “organically grown”. ACTIVITY 1 1. Use the background information to create a short summary (one short paragraph) about the “Eat Organic Food”. 2. Create an organisation chart for the business. 3. Use the information above to describe the area of the organisation under study (i.e. the business functions that will be handled by the new information system). 4. Add the background information, organisation chart, and business functions to your Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 9 There are examples of each of the things listed above in the text. However, make sure you do some other research. Use internet searches to find other examples and to look for examples that could use to help you construct the things you need. CASE STUDY PART 2 At your initial meeting, you and Ruth discussed some initial steps in planning an information system for the farm. The next morning, you worked together on a business profile, and talked together about various types of information systems that could provide the best support for handling their customers’ needs, and mindful that there was a need to also track certification documentation to demonstrate the fully ‘organically produced’ nature of the farm produce. You also discussed the longer term plan to expand the operations of the farm to include farms that supplied fruit, which would also have to be demonstrated to be fully ‘organically produced’. You start by creating a System Vision Document for “Eat Organic Food”, so that Ruth can use this to define a vision for the new system and present this to Ian. ACTIVITY 2 1. Either by yourself or with another class member, brainstorm all the functions that the “Eat Organic Food” Information System might fulfil. Keep it at a very high level. 2. Prepare a draft System Vision Document for the Farm Information System. This System Vision Document will be revised when you find out more about the requirements for the system. An example of System Vision Document can be seen in Figure 1.8 of the textbook (Figure 1.5 in the 6th ed). 3. Add your System Vision Document to your Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation. You have been given a little information about what is required but there are a lot of gaps. You are expected to fill these gaps to work out details and additional information that is needed. This also gives you some latitude to explore farming and their operations as they apply to your background and experience. Make sure you explore other vision documents and know how they are worded and what needs to be expressed in them so that an organisation knows where it is headed and what it is trying to achieve. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 10 CASE STUDY PART 3 Ian has agreed that Ruth’s argument for an information system has merit. Your System Vision Document helped to demonstrate some of the potential benefits. Ruth wants you to get ready for the next set of systems development tasks, which will be requirements modelling for the new system. Yesterday Ruth called you into her office out at the farm to discuss the specific tasks she wants you to perform. After meeting with Ruth, you sit down and review your notes. She wants you to treat the set of tasks as a project, and to use project management skills to plan the tasks. Ruth is fully supportive of your involvement and excited that you carry so much practical knowledge in computer systems and that you are quickly learning about farming issues. Ruth is also excited that she too can become involved with her previous knowledge and skills in technology. Ruth has authorised you to have full access to people and documents as required, and enabled you to use your time as you determine. Ruth has suggested for you as a work breakdown structure, including the duration she estimated for each task: ? First, you need to meet with all farm staff that support all aspects of the business including a farmer who is a likely first inclusion in the production of fruit (2 days); ? You can then conduct a series of staff interviews (5 days); ? When the interviews are complete, you can review farm records of produce, season, customer purchases, costs and profits, (2 days) while observing business operations (2 days); ? You have been tasked with also interviewing some of the customers, if possible (1 day) ? When you have reviewed the records and observed business operations, you can o analyse the accounting processes currently used (2 days), o study a sample of orders and payment transactions (2 days), and o undertake some field work regarding the intended home delivery service (2 days) ? After completing your study, prepare a report for Ruth and Ian (1 day). ACTIVITY 3 1. Create a table, listing all tasks separately, with their duration; 2. Identify all dependencies, and indicate what predecessor tasks are required; 3. Construct a Gantt chart in Microsoft Project or other project management software; 4. Identify the PERT/CPM chart in the software, and identify the critical path; 5. Determine the overall duration of the project; “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 11 6. Take clear screenshots of the Gantt chart and PERT/CPM chart and paste into your Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation under Project Management. 7. Include the overall duration and critical path in your report. You will have to offer ideas here and make sure that you cover the tasks needed. As well, you need to make sure that the tasks are at an appropriate level of detail to enable you to make an informed and professional decision about how long the project will take. Obviously there will be tasks that you will have to list at this early stage that you might not have to do or that depend on what direction the project will take. For example, the tasks needed if you implement an off-the-shelf package are different to the tasks needed if the system is developed in-house. Perhaps you need more than one project plan. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 12 AN ASIDE Chance meeting between Frank and Mick While shopping for groceries Frank runs into Mick. They have not seen each other for several years. A transcript is provided below. Frank: Mick! How are you doing? You’re looking better than the last time I saw you down in the city. Mick: Yeah, picture of health I am …or will be soon now that I’m back in country air full time. I could go off and be a movie star if I wanted I reckon. Frank: But you don’t want to? Mick: Nah mate, this place will do me. I much rather the morning smell of farm land after fresh rain than parking lots after peak hour rush. Frank: What, your back here to stay? Mick: Yeah, if I can. I‘ve just got put on at Ian’s farm. I’m lucky as! Beautiful spot, and he grows the best veggies. It’s funny…we all used to joke with him at school about his vegie patch and chickens, but I got to tell you…he has now got it all happening. A bit chaotic at times, I must say, but it’s like he can talk to them…the veggies and the chickens…and they all respond by just growing and growing. Frank: Is Ian just being nice to you or has he got something specific in mind? Mick: Things are still to be fully worked out, but at the moment he’s got me mixing and turning together these giant mounds of cow manure and chicken manure and grass cuttings and the scale of it is enormous. I’m not doing this by hand, mind you, I’m using one the tractors, but he says he is doing some testing on compost preparations. He has laid out these giant mixes of composting manure that he says he is preparing. I know that he wants to add into this mix some other things, including sugar cane off cuts, but he has held back because he is worried that the sugar cane was grown using pesticides and would jeopardise his “all organic” status. Still, I know that he is trying to source a supply of organic sugar cane mulch, and it’s a question of whether he can transport to the farm at an economic cost. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 13 So, early days, but he and Ruth seem to be working on some kind of major expansion plan for the farm, but I know that he is insisting that he needs to find a way of doing so that still maintains the quality of his produce. (Mick nodded towards the trolley of vegetable produce that Frank was pushing.) Mick: He’ll do a lot better stuff than that for you Frank. Frank: Ahh…yeah, I know. We used to get vegies from him, and they were fantastic, but it just became a hassle to do the whole order and pick up routine every week. Mick: Oh really! How so? Frank: Life has become quite busy for Heidi and myself with the twins born last year and the run out to his farm was just taking too long for us, especially since he was always keen to have a chat and the pick-up itself had also become a mud wrestle at times. Literally. His vegies have become so popular that the pick up traffic has turned the field area into a bog a few times, especially after rain. Cars would get stuck, people would get cranky, and there was also increased confusion about who was to get what box, and how to pay. It got to the point where he had one of his tractors on stand-by just in case someone needed to have their car pulled out. Don’t get me wrong, lovely guy, and his misses is a win for humanity. Smart too. Look, maybe she can sort him out on the business side. Heidi and I miss their vegies and absolutely would prefer to be eating theirs, but it just became difficult and this supermarket, although not as good, is just convenient. Mick: You know that they are thinking about doing home deliveries? Well, Ruth is anyway. Frank: No way. I’m sorry that we stopped buying from them. Mick: It’s not happening yet, but I am pretty sure that it will be, and they would be happy to get your business again. There’s no grudge, and there is no problem about supply, some of it just gets left to rot sometimes because they get confused about what is needed to be picked for each days orders. Frank: For sure. I’m in. In fact there’s a few people I know in the office who were a bit like me…it just got to be more hassle than it was worth, so stopped going out there. Perhaps they would be willing to do a drop off “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 14 to the office if there were a few people interested in the delivery service. And I know that Dave would jump at it. And Wilbur would be happy because he’s always complaining of having to get out there every few days to always have “only fresh”. Oh… “and organic!”. Wilbur is a total health freak since his bout of cancer. He swears that he is never again eating anything that is not fully guaranteed to be wholly natural. Mick: I heard about Wilbur, I’m so glad that he is in the clear. I am not surprised if he thinks that the health foods helped him. He was always inclined to that side of things with his Paleo diets and stuff. So when are we getting together for something more meaningful than trolley pushing? Frank: How about next Saturday afternoon. I’ll put the call out to all who are still around. There will be some who will be very keen to catch up with you. Up at the lookout a few hours before sunset. I’ll do the meat with one of our “happy cows”! But you do the vegies since you are working at the Garden of Eden… and see if you can pinch some of Ian’s stuff for a fruit salad. He can be a bit chatty at times, but his fruit is always just a pleasure. Mick: I should be able to do better than that! I’ll see if I can bring along Ian and Ruth. They are always busy, but I’m sure that one of the farm hands can cover them for a few hours. “Eat Organic Food” Case Study ISY00243 – 2019 S1 Page 15 AN ASIDE Ruth clarifies a few things on the phone You had left a phone message with Ruth asking about what is involved to be certified as “organically grown” and why the farm adopts this approach. Ruth has got back to you and indicated that to be certified as organically grown it needs to be documented and demonstrated that the farming process has not used any chemical fertilizers, any herbicides, any pesticides, and has not used any additives for farm stock. Ruth acknowledges that the overall yield is often reduced compared to non-organically grown methods in broad scale farming, but that she and Ian are committed to it because they believe it results in a healthier food produce and is better for the environment, making it sustainable. There is also a need to ensure that there are no genetically modified foods present. The customers of “Eat Organic Food” are willing to pay more for the organically grown produce than what they would spend in a supermarket because they are happier
