System Analysis and Design course

IT and the arts During the past half century or so, technology has revolu­ tionized communications media, bringing into being radio, cinema, television, records, and audio and video cassettes. Each one of these forms of communication has had a considerable and obvious impact on the arts. Not only have they made the major forms of art universally and freely available, they have profoundly influenced the art forms themselves. Radio drama, for instance, is a quite new art form, as is much of the art of the cinema. Today, the main thrust of information technology is centred on computers, and the present generation of com­ puters with their graphics and multimedia capabilities are having a major impact on the production of works of art. We can summarize their influence as: • Increasing the tools available to the artist, so offering him a new range of artistic possibilities. Electronic music is one obvious example of this. • Increasing the productivity of the artist, so enabli

IT and national security Two of the problems that organizations face when they computerize are: • Increased vulnerability to machine breakdown. • Risk of unauthorized users tampering with their data. Because, after computerization, all major functions tend to be centred on the computer, the consequences of both can be disastrous. So organizations go to great lengths to guard against these possibilities, with expensive maintenance con­ tracts, back-up procedures, and elaborate password and other security devices. In spite of this, computers still go wrong, hackers are still able to break into systems, and the extent of computer fraud, although unknown, is large. When public administration and national defence operations are computerized, however, the dire consequences of a malfunction or unauthorized access are magnified many times. As I write this, the United States National Research Council has just published a report on computer security called Computers at Risk (publ

IT and the high street IT has brought about a consumer revolution. Cash is giving way to plastic cards; electronic point-of-sale terminals linked to the store's ordering system and to the banking system are appearing everywhere; and shopping and banking can even be done from a home computer linked to the telephone network. Plastic money is of two types: • Credit cards, such as Access and Visa, which allow you to purchase goods without the need to make an imme­diate payment. Stores can add a small surcharge to your bill if you use this payment method, and the credit card company will charge you interest if you don't settle your account by the due date. • Debit cards, such as Switch and Link, which also allow you to purchase goods by directly debiting your bank account. Many debit cards double up as cash cards, allowing you to draw cash from your bank account. This gives an instant and cost-free way of getting at your money via automatic telling machines (ATMs) at any par

IT and job content We've examined the likely impact of IT on employment numbers, and on the kinds of jobs that are going to be available in future. But what will those jobs be like? Will they be monotonous jobs requiring few skills, involving perhaps the repetitive input of data on a computer terminal? Or will the computer itself do all the boring bits, leaving human workers to concentrate on the creative, problem­ solving side? Let's examine what's happened in the past as a result of technological advances. Some jobs have indeed been de­ skilled, and become extremely monotonous. One only has to compare the kind of jobs that are done in a furniture factory today with the work of master craftsmen in the past to realize that this is the case. Other jobs have become much more interesting, as computers have enabled people to take on a wider range of responsibilities and acquire a wider repertoire of skills. In fact, just as the new technology can improve the general quali

Introduction Most of this book has concentrated on the technology of information processing and its business applications. This final chapter covers its impact on society in general. • We look at its impact on work and employment. Here, IT is changing the content of jobs. Old skills and practices are disappearing, and new ones emerging. New machines and new products are developed at an ever­ increasing rate, creating new markets and jobs, while companies and industries that stick with old technology decline, shedding jobs. • Turning to education and training, we see that com­ puter-based training is steadily encroaching on tra­ ditional methods. • We look also at the impact of IT on commerce, including retailing and banking. 'Intelligent' cash cards are making their appearance, and supermarket point-of-sale termi­ nals that analyse our purchases, update the store's records, and even dispense cash from our bank accounts are now part of the everyday shopping scene.

Flexible manufacturing systems Because modern CNC machines and robots are software­ driven, they can be switched from task to task in a very flexible way. Also, production plans can be equally flexible, because they are calculated by the computer data processing system. The combination of the two is flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), a term used to describe the ability of modern manufacturing operations to switch rapidly from one prod­uct specification to another. FMS offers great benefits for many types of production: • Batch production, which accounts for a large part of manufacturing activity, can be automated, with resulting cost and quality benefits. • Large-scale production is no longer tied to huge produc­tion runs of identical products. A car manufacturing plant, for example, can make cars to order without incurring heavy set-up costs. This means that dealers or customers can specify the colours and accessories required, and the quantities, and these can be quic

Computer-aided manufacture Computer-aided manufacture (CAM) refers to the use of computers to control the manufacturing process, primarily by controlling the settings of tools and the way they are used in computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) machines and other automatic devices, and by controlling the deployment of industrial robots. The CAM system uses the production plans produced by the DP system, and the product designs produced by the CAD system, to work out what should be made at what times and on which machines. To understand what's involved, you should know that factory production typically involves two major processes: • The machining of p? ..t" • The handling of parts and their assembly. Today, CNC machines can carry out the first process very efficiently, even for small runs. Operating automatically under software instructions, they can apply various drilling, turning, and cutting devices to the raw material to manufac­ture an accurately-made part.

Manufacturing resources planning Manufacturing resources planning (MRP) was one of the first attempts to use computers to aid manufacturing. It originated in the 1960s under the name 'material require­ments planning', and it used the data processing computers of the day to speed up the main aspects of a manufacturer's pre-production paperwork: • Generating purchase orders for the supply of raw materials and parts required by the manufacturing process. • Generating works orders instructing the workshops to carry out manufacturing operations to meet orders. To generate these outputs, the computer requires infor­mation from the following sources: • The manufacturing schedule, i.e. the long-term produc­tion plan which specifies what finished products have to be produced by what dates. The finished product demand is expressed in numbers of units, while the due date is expressed as a period number. • The bill of materials, which describes the relationship b

The benefits of factory automation Organizations which have implemented CIM techniques have benefitted in a number of ways. A recent survey com­ missioned by the DTI and carried out by Benchmark Re­ search revealed the following perceived benefits from CIM: • Increased flexibility in manufacturing operations. • Increased productivity. • Reduction in lead times. • Reduction in costs. • Improved product quality. Creating the integrated factory To implement CIM, the DP system and the various auto­ mated manufacturing systems (see page 219) must be closely tied together by electronic links. There must be a large computer (typically a mainframe) in overall control of these systems, running special software such as the TIME software described in the next section. This same computer may also run the DP system and the various CIM systems, in which case the links between these systems will be purely software links. The first phase may be to link the CAD system to

What is computer-integrated manufacturing? Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) covers a range of technologies and techniques that seek to use the power of the computer to ensure that all activities, equipment, and processes in a manufacturing organization work together in the most effective way to achieve its objectives. The word 'integrated' means that CIM is more than merely the piecemeal application of the automated produc­tion techniques described later in this chapter - robots, NC machines, automatic materials handling, and so on. A central concern is the flow and the use of information, so that each part of the organization, whether sales, purchas­ing, warehousing, or production, knows at any point in time exactly what it should be doing in order to be properly integrated into other activities and so optimize overall performance. This means that data has to be processed and passed between the various systems and machines, and so CIM is heavily dependent upon data

Integrating the subsystems When a number of subsystems have been designed and implemented in this way, the point will be reached when their integration becomes desirable. This involves making arrangements so that subsystems share common computer files, and data is entered into the system only once. If subsystems are not integrated, then data may have to be entered more than once and stored in more than one file. For example, data on goods received may be entered on the stock file as part of the stock control subsystem, then entered a second time on the supplier file as part of the paying subsystem. This is obviously not a desirable way to run a computer system, though with small-scale microcom­puter systems it is sometimes unavoidable. This phase of the systems project involves: • Establishing organization-wide coding systems to replace the variety of coding systems that may have developed over the years in the various departments. For example, part numbers in the catalogu

Computerizing the subsystems This is the next phase in the systems project. It consists of a number of studies, usually carried out consecutively, cover ing the various subsystems that were identified in the feasibility report for computerization. The stages of each study are: 1 Problem selection. 2 Terms of reference. 3 Investigation. 4 Analysis. 5 Design. 6 Implementation. Let's look at each of these stages in turn. 1 Problem selection. This stage will in fact form part of the feasibility study. The principle is that a subsystem should be investigated only if the benefits expected from the investigation are likely to exceed the costs. These costs include the costs of the investigation itself. The analyst will therefore concentrate on systems which have reasonably heavy volumes of routine data processing work, and which therefore offer substantial savings if computerized. 2 Terms of reference. These must be written down before the study of a subsy

Systems analysis In this final part of the chapter we shall be looking mainly at systems analysis. This can be defined as the task of determining the boundaries (i.e. the inputs and outputs) of data processing systems within an organization, and finding out for each system the most cost-effective way of converting the inputs to outputs. As a general rule, systems analysis is conducted with the object of introducing or extending computer processing in the organization. All commercial organizations have data processing pro­cedures producing transaction documents and management reports, but these procedures do not always work very well. The systems analyst's job is to investigate them and to make recommendations for improvements. We can break down this task into the following main steps: 1 Find out what the outputs of a system should be, i.e. what transaction documents and management reports it should produce. He or she will do this by collecting information on existing proce

Bureau processing There are a number of computer bureaux offering data processing facilities based on mainframe or minicomputers. The bureau provides the computer hardware and software, the client firm sends in its data for processing. A number of arrangements are possible: • In one arrangement, the client sends the source docu­ments through the post, the bureau keys it in, processes it, and sends back the output. • In another, the client keys in the data on a terminal located in the client's premises, and it is sent over the phone line to the bureau's computer, the output being sent back in the same way. Batch processing will be used, as this minimizes both the telephone line time and the computer time. • In a third, a member of the bureau's staff travels to the client's premises on a periodic basis with a portable computer, and keys in and processes the data on the spot. The advantages to the client of using a bureau are: • The client does not f