Jewellery management systems. Development of a system to computerize the major transactions in jewellery like, purchases, sales and bill preparation

Table of contents

Table of tables

List of abbreviations

Jewellery management systems: an overview

Abstract

1. Introduction
1.1 About the organization

2. System study
2.1 Observation
2.2 Interviews
2.3 Questionnaires
2.4 Discussion

3. Materials and Methods
3.1 Existing system
3.2 Limitations of existing system
3.3 Proposed system
3.4 Advantages of the proposed system

4. System analysis
4.1 Feasibility of the study
4.2 Requirement specification
4.3 About Microsoft Windows XP
4.4 Visual Basic 6.0 (front end)
4.5 Facilities incorporated in the front end
4.6 Special features
4.7 Microsoft Access 2007
4.8 Data access
4.9 Jet database format

5. System design
5.1 Input design
5.2 Output design
5.3 Database design
5.4 Normalization
5.5 Normal forms (NF)
5.6 Rules of normalization
5.7 Database design
5.8 Tables
5.9 Data flow diagrams

6. System testing
6.1 Testing objectives
6.2 Types of testing used
6.3 Unit testing
6.4 Testing techniques

7. System implementation and maintenance
7.1 Implementation concept
7.2 System maintenance
7.3 Future scope

8. Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly we thank God Almighty whose blessing were always with us and helped us to complete this research work successfully.

We are extremely grateful to Prakash Joseph (Head of the Department, Computer Science) for the valuable suggestions, support and encouragements. We wish to thank our beloved Manager Rev. Fr. Dr. George Njarakunnel, Respected Principal Dr. Joseph V. J, Bursar Shaji Augustine, Vice Principal Fr. Joseph Allencheril, and the Management for providing all the necessary facilities in carrying out the study.

We lovingly and gratefully indebted to our teachers, parents, siblings and friends who were there always for helping us in this project.

Prem Jose Vazhacharickal*, Sunil K Joseph, Reshma K.R and Geethu Thomas

*Address for correspondence

Assistant Professor

Department of Biotechnology

Mar Augusthinose College

Ramapuram-686576

Kerala, India

Table of tables

Table 1. Table details (login table) and creation parameters

Table 2. Table details (gold rate) and creation parameters

Table 3. Table details of stone and creation parameters

Table 4. Table details (item details) and creation parameters

Table 5. Table details (Debtors) and creation parameters

Table 6. Table details (Stock table) and creation parameters

Table 7. Table details (Employee table) and creation parameters

Table 8. Table details (Creditors) and creation parameters

Table 9. Table details (Dealer) and creation parameters

Table 10. Table details (Sales) and creation parameters

Table 11. Table details (Sales main) and creation parameters

Table 12. Table details (Purchase) and creation parameters

Table 13. Table details (Purchase main) and creation parameters

List of abbreviations

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Jewellery management systems: an overview

Prem Jose Vazhacharickal1, Sunil K Joseph2, Reshma K.R2 and Geethu Thomas3

1 Department of Biotechnology, Mar Augusthinose College, Ramapuram, Kerala, India-686576

2 Department of Computer Science, Mar Augusthinose College, Ramapuram, Kerala, India-686576

3 Higher Secondary Division, Sacred Heart English Medium Higher Secondary, Moolamattom, Kerala, India-685589

Abstract

In this modern world, computer becomes more and more popular and important to our society. We can use computer everywhere and they are very useful and helpful to our daily life. Computerized systems can be used for scheduling the jobs, update the stock details, for complex calculations, and also used for preparing bills to customers. Here we developed a system to computerize the major transactions in jewellery like, purchases, sales and bill preparation. This software can be used for managing customers as well as employees associated with that shop in a short period of time. The minimum guarantee is that this system takes less time compared to all manual works, so we can save time and money also.

Keywords: Data flow diagram, Databases, Jewellery, Visual basic.

1. Introduction

The project “Jewellery management systems: an overview: developed for “THEKKAYIL JEWELLERY”, Pravithanam, Kerala, India. This system performs transactions including login, purchase and sales efficiently. When the data become large in size and difficult to manage, it is better to use computers rather than manual data entry system. The newly developed system is more suited than the manual database because it provides the facilities like,

- Large storage capacity.
- High speed.
- More accuracy.
- High security.
- Data can be stored in the form of file, records and fields etc..

1.1 About the organization

The project work entitled “Jewellery management system: an overview” has been developed to computerize all operations in “THEKKAYIL JEWELLERY”, Pravithanam, Kerala, India. The jewellery was established in 2005. It is owned by Mr. Mathachan sole proprietor.

The firm purchases items based on their demand and they also update their stock according to new fashion. The payment is mainly done in terms of cash. In present system all operations are done manually. They give primary priority to the customers, thus the jewellery stores trendy collection of variety of ornaments and traditional items also. The availability of top quality ornaments is one of the main reason to drive the customers to this organization.

2. System study

System study is a detailed study of various operations performed by a system and their relationships within and outside the system. It is an orderly process for identifying and solving problems. System study gives the structure and functioning of the system and it is done in order to understand the problem and emphasize what is needed from the system (Awad, 1994; Gore and Stubbe, 1988).

The system study involves studying and analyzing the ways the organization currently retrieves and process data to produce information with goal of determining how to make it better. It can be done on an existing system only. The various techniques used in this are:

2.1 Observation

It is the process of recognizing and noting the existing system closely to obtain information. The main limitation of observation is the difficulty of observing attitudes and motivation and the many unproductive hours that often are spent in observing one-time activities. The observation of the functioning of the system gives the idea for the design of new system. It is useful to understand and study entire current system.

2.2 Interviews

The interview is a face-to-face interpersonal role situation in which a person called the interviewer asks a person being interviewed questions designed to gather information about the system. The interview is the oldest and most often used device for gathering information in the systems work. It can be used for two main purposes :(1) as an exploratory device to identify relations or verify information , and (2) to capture information as it exists.

2.3 Questionnaires

The questionnaire is a term used for almost any tool that has questions to which individuals respond. It is usually associated with self-administered tools with items of the closed or fixed alternative type. It is more economical and requires less skill to administer than the interview.

2.4 Discussion

Discussion goes a long way in satisfying the needs of the management. The main objective of the discussion is transferring the ideas between department and the system developer. Through discussion useful suggestions made by the user can be in corporate into the new system.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1 Existing system

The existing system is a manual system. The proposed system tries to simplify the difficulties encountered in manually handling information about the member details, creditor details, purchase, sales and payments.

The existing system requires a number of records and takes a huge amount of time for the process completion. When we compare the existing system with the proposed system, there are many drawbacks for the existing system.

In the current system there is a chance of unauthorized access of data this may cause change in the original data and also loss of the data. These may result bad assessment in the shop performance. The existing system, all calculations are done manually. For this purpose the organization needs a person with well mathematical knowledge and also these manual calculations take more time and chance of error is very high. So it cannot produce accurate results at every time. It is difficult to place an order to files, so searching of a file is also very difficult and it is a time consuming process.

3.2 Limitations of existing system

The existing system has limitations. They are:

- In order to perform various operations, the staffs have to refer to various written documents and thus create several paper works.
- The existing system is time consuming.
- Large storage area is required.
- Less reliable due to human errors.
- Low processing speed.
- There is a chance of redundancy.
- Inaccuracy in calculations.
- Current system does not provide any security.
- Searching or modification of a record is very difficult.
- Difficult in producing reports.

3.3 Proposed system

The proposed system for THEKKAYIL JEWELLERY overcomes most of the limitations of the present system. So it is necessary to computerize the present system. Thus we get a better control over the system and the new system ready to solve all the requirements of the user.

The structure and characteristics of different files were to be redesigned, eliminating all the limitations of the existing system and to make the system more efficient and user friendly. The proposed system is aimed to reduce the manual work, reduce storage space, reduce the number of employees, increases the speed of retrieval and produces more accurate result and also provides more security. The proposed system is very powerful and it is highly user friendly. It also prevents the unauthorized access to data.

In the proposed system, the data entry screens should be interactive in nature, so that the user can directly input data. The new system gives immediate response to the user by sending various messages after the major operations, thus the user can assure that the data is entered successfully. Thus we get accurate results and also we get the well formatted reports. The new system must include provisions for ordering the files. This makes access and searching records become very efficient.

The proposed system makes use of magnetic disk storage, which can store bulk amount of data within a limited space and will reduce pen and paper works. Thus the proposed system has many advantages over the existing system, so computerized system is very necessary.

3.4 Advantages of the proposed system

The proposed system has many advantages over the existing system. They are

- Data manipulations are more reliable and accurate.
- Making, searching and updating very easy.
- User friendly.
- Portable and flexible.
- Timely and accurate information can be obtained.
- Prevent data redundancy.
- Helps to make well formatted reports.
- Reduce workload of employees.
- Reduce storage space.
- Reduce complexity of manual calculations.
- Reduce manual work.
- Better security provides.
- Enables to view large volume of data in a short period of time.
- Does not call for additional staffing requirements.
- Provides efficient decision due to effective and accurate reports.

4. System analysis

The first step in developing the system is analyzing the problem. Before developing a system the problem should be well defined. Identifying the need for a new information system and launching an investigation and a feasible study must be done to check whether the software is visible for the organization. This unit we have done this study.

Lack of security is another problem of the existing system. That may lead to serious problems. It will affect the business career. In the existing system, there is no facility for the user to see the data. The existing system is not reliable because of human errors.

Because of the above reasons the existing system need to be change, for the easy and smooth running of the system.

4.1 Feasibility of the study

The software requirement specification is produced at the culmination of the analysis All projects are feasible given unlimited and resource and infinite time. Unfortunately, the development of computer-based system is more likely to be plagued by scarcity of resources and difficult delivery dates.

Feasibility study is a system proposal according to its workability, impact on the organization, ability to meet user needs and efficient use of resources. Feasibility study identifiers, describes, and evaluates the candidate system and select the best system for the job. An important outcome of the preliminary investigation is determining whether the system requested is feasible or not. After the proposed system was found to be social and technically acceptable, it was tested for economic feasibility.

4.1.1 Technical feasibility

There may be a number of technical issues, which are generally raised during the feasibility stage of the investigation. Programming languages, other hardware and software specifications are easily available for this system development. Hence the proposed system is technically feasible. The considerations that are normally associated technical feasibility include.

- Development Risk.
- Resource Availability.
- Technology.

4.1.2 Economic feasibility

The proposed system insures very low cost for the development and implementation. The system can work on systems with a configuration and connectivity which causes no excessive cost for implementation or usage. Data charge is the only cost that incurred once the software is installed on the system. The study is carried out to check the economic impact that the system will have on the organization. The amount of fund that the company can pour into the research and development is limited. The expenditure must be justified. Thus the developed system as well within the budget and this was achieved because most of the technologies used are freely available. Only the customized products had to be purchased. All you really need to do is install the software on your system and activate it.

4.1.3 Behavioural feasibility

It centres on the reaction of the users, since the system is not so complicated it is easily understandable by anyone. User training is also very easy. The user must not feel threatened by the system, instead must accept it as a necessity. The user also does not need to have any concept of the software used for developing the system.

4.1.4 Operational feasibility

This is necessary to know whether the system is operationally feasible. It checks whether the system is flexible for the user to use and whether all the operations are working correctly and effectively. The newly developed jewellery management system satisfies all the operational conditions.

The system does not require enormous amount of money to be developed. The cost of project depends upon the number of man hours required. Proposed system can support all type of users, who has limited knowledge in computing why because the system provides a user interactive GUI created by using simple language. This is just a thing to install the software on the system, and then it’s a matter of going through each area of the software that you want to control.

4.2 Requirement specification

The first step in selection understands user’s requirements within the framework of the organization’s objectives and the environment in which the system being installed.

Consideration is given to user’s recourses and as well as to finances. In selecting software, the user must decide whether to develop it in house hire a service company or contract programmer to create it. The choice is logically made after the user has clearly defined the requirements expected of the software.

4.2.1 Hardware specifications

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM : 3 GB of RAM

Hard Disk Drive : 320 GB of available Hard Disk space

Keyboard : Standard 108 keys

Monitor : Display panel (14 inches)

Pointing device : Mouse

Connectivity : Local intranet or internet

4.2.2 Software specifications

Front end : Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0

Back end : Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Operating System : Windows XP or higher

4.3 About Microsoft Windows XP

The Microsoft website provides tutorials that you can use to learn about and deploy the Windows XP operating system. This technical walk-through provides step by step instructions and illustrations for installing and configuring key features of Windows XP server. It is the most flexible and powerful operating system developed by Microsoft team. It is more users friendly and a stable operating system equipped with much more added features.

The operating system supports new technologies such as digital video disks, multiple monitors etc…along with plug and play multi-display features. Following are the common features of Windows XP:

- Powerful system administration and configuration.
- Greater system readability and performance along with a better user interface.
- Built-in networking and messaging facility.
- Increase system security and control.
- Run under PC’s protected mode.

4.4 Visual Basic 6.0 (front end)

We have selected VB as the programming language for developing our project. There are many advantages for this programming language. And it is very user friendly. As the backend we have selected structured query language (SQL) Server.

Making interface with computer is easy and pleasant as possible, which is the major objective. To achieve opting for a graphical interface package was the easiest choice. So we choose VB, which is one of the simplest and first developed graphical user interface (GUI) package. Microsoft VB is the quickest and the easiest way to create application for Microsoft Windows operating system. One can create powerful application that exploits the key features of Microsoft Windows including Multiple Document Interface (MDI), Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), Dynamic Data Enduring (DDE).

Visual Basic also provides unique and complete software architecture. "Architecture" is the way computer programs, such as Windows and visual basic (VB) programs, work together. One of the major reasons why Visual Basic has been so successful is that it includes everything that is necessary to write programs for Windows. One of the big innovations introduced by VB was a way to split a program into two parts. One part is written by the programmer and does everything that makes that program unique, such as adding two specific values. The other part does all of the processing that any program might need such as the programming to add any values. The second part is called the "runtime" in Visual Basic 6 and earlier and is part of the Visual Basic system.

4.5 Facilities incorporated in the front end

4.5.1 Standard EXE:

Create a standalone program that we can copy, give away, or sell to others. Example of standalone programs are Microsoft (MS) Word, Netscape Navigator etc. Stand alone programs have an .EXE extension.

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