Annual Operating Plan
Sales Forecast compared to Actual shipments.
 Synopsis
| Description of this project. |
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Required Hardware
| Hardware utilized for this project. |
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Required Software
| Software packages utilized for this project. |
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Environment
| Installation physical and logical environment. |
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Application Interfaces
| Interactions with other systems. |
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Synopsis:
Actual data is gathered real-time as customer orders are manufactured and shipped. However, due to problems with Sybase read-only cursors locking the database, a duplicate database is updated overnight and used by all reporting operations. This keeps the reports from locking out the on-line manufacturing process and shutting down the plant.
Sales personnel input projections for as much as 5 years in advance. As a new year beings, a snapshot of the projection for that year is kept as a reference. The figures for the current calendar year are maintained for projecting revised expectations.
Actual sales are summarized with the current forecast completing the year's sales. These are then compared to the snapshot.
The tables and reports permit prices and quantities to be adjusted for "what if" senarios to be explored.
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Required Hardware:
The Annual Operating Plan tables, maintenane forms and reports run on Windows 95 workstations networked to an NT Server.
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Required Software:
The application is developed using Access97, Excel97 and PowerPoint. Local data is stored in Access with links to Sybase 10 using Intersolv DataDirect ODBC drivers.
Any Windows platform (Win95, NT Server or NT Workstation) with Access97, Sybase SQL Client, and the Intersolv ODBC drivers can run the forms, queries and reports in the Access database. Wint appropriate software packages, the data can be incorprated in Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides.
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Environment:
This is a large, multi-location network of computes. The network includes DEC Alpha servers running OpenVMS. These are the hosts of the Sybase kernel. There are also numerous Windows NT 3.51 Servers that permit multi-user sharing of data. The Annual Operating Plan's Access97 database is on one of these servers.
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Application Interfaces:
The common point of cummunication between numerous, cooperative processes is the Sybase database. Applications ranging from real-time control of the manufacturing process to analysis of historical data us a common set of data. All of the production and sales data are collected through "C" programs running under OpenVMS. Some of the forecast figures are entered through this same collection of application programs. Data from these applications are extracted and summarized for the planning reports.
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Last Revised: Sunday, January 4, 1998
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