MAT Solutions : Records Management System

Feasibility Report

Metal Industries Company Ltd (MIC) was established in 1975 as a joint venture of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the United Development Program and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNDP/UNIDO). The acronym MIC, is associated with advanced industrial Technology and Manufacturing Engineering in the Industrial Sector of Trinidad and Tobago and throughout the Caribbean region. MIC has the distinction of being contracted by several government ministries as a facilitator and/or consultant for some of their training programs.

The company, in addition to manufacturing, repairing, servicing and maintaining industrial tools and equipment, utilizes some of the most advance engineering machinery and manufacturing technology found in the Caribbean region. MIC also functions as training factory, which provides a cadre of highly trained manufacturing Engineers and Technicians, Toolmakers, Precision Machinists, Maintenance Technicians, Welding Professionals, Non-destructive Testing Personnel and certified Welding Inspectors among other specialized Technical Vocational Training.

Having recognized the need to streamline its operations, increase efficiency and improve the quality of service to various stakeholders (i.e. Students, Government, Management and etc.). MIC is seeking to computerize the administration of its services. In MIC Strategic plan sessions

for the period 2005-2007 it was decided that their was a great need to create and maintain a dynamic network platform that is reliable, secure, flexible and efficient and for a Management Information System Solution that would provide prompt management information which would be the basis for business decision.

In December 2005, the Information Technology Department (IT) started to embark towards their goals which were outlined in the company’s strategic plans. Improvement of the Hardware and Software components started with acquisition of 115 Personal Computer, 43 laptop Computers, Projectors, UPS, Printer etc these purchases were followed by a network upgrade, with the implementation of six (6) new Servers and the modification of the IT communication room.

The Information Technology department has identified that they are in the process of purchasing a fully integrated management information system to create a seamless, integrated technology environment accessible by all employees of the MIC enterprise. The IT department has decided to approach the transformation in phases with the first stage being development of databases for Human Resource Department, Finance Department and the Manufacturing department. The second stage being the development of databases for various departments which falls under Training Administration. The objective of the phased approach is to document and review requirements specification processes and in the long term reduce implementation time and cost of the management information system.

Currently the training department uses a combination of manual system and spreadsheets to manage information and generate reports. A Trainee management database is seen as a necessity for control, accuracy and creation of timely reports. MAT solutions have proposed to create a Records Management System (RMS). The main objective of the proposed system is to provide an efficient and effective computerized system for the storage and retrieval of students’ personal records, this database for MIC would consist of two modules; Application Module and Student Management Module. The application module would process the application information of all trainees applying for Journeyman Courses, Master craftsman and other courses offered by the company. It will manage the applicants personal information i.e. Assigned identification number, full name, telephone contact numbers, home addresses, emergency contact number, educational history, qualifications, specific program applied too and their job history. The student management module would maintain registrations of trainees, enrolment in respective program/courses and location where the trainee is placed. This system would be used to generate reports consisting of listing of students registered in all the various programs, list of placement of all registered students, list by Centers just to name a few, to easily update trainees records and to access trainees records on a timely basis.

The RMS would be used mainly by the clerical and administrative staff present in the training & placement departments, indirectly the secretaries at the various centers located externally would be able to use the information cutting down on entry work which could be classified as ‘double entry work’, reports requested by managers would be created on a timely basis, the development of this database would eliminate the process of looking for the information requested there by saving time and generation of accurate reports which would be accomplished on a very large scale. In order to attain the requirements for the system, Three information gathering techniques were used.

· Interviewing users

· Meetings with the manager

· Viewing sample data collection forms

The question asked goes as follows:-

What is the current procedure when receiving new trainees into the program as far as data entry in concerned?
How many steps are involved in the processing of a new trainee? List these steps
How many departments are involved in data entry?
In your opinion can any of these steps be improved upon to increase accuracy and efficiency? Which are they and how so?
How are the trainees files stored and retrieved?
What is the process for handling and generating trainee file information for reports?

From the information gathered the following diagrams shows the processes of the system.

Fig 1.1 shows the data flow diagram of the records management system, the data of the system flows as follows: - ‘Academic Records” which is an outside source inputs ‘Course Schedule’ information this information is then output to a file ‘Course Offered’ where it is stored. The stored file is used in the ‘Enroll Student’ process when a student makes a request to do a course. A ‘Student’ file and a ‘Course Enrollment’ file is created to store both course and student information. A ‘Class List’ is produced, which includes the enrolled student’s academic information.

View Data Flow Diagram

Fig 1.2 shows the entity relationship diagram of the records management system, the entity relationship of the system goes as follows:- (starting from the top to the bottom) one course has many course sections, that relates to one definite student. Many course sections relates to a definite course. Many course sections relates to a student and one student relates to many course sections.

View Entity Relationship Diagram

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