Question
El Paso Coffee Roasters is a family-owned chain of coffee roasters. They have expanded from their humble beginnings in El Paso, to a $30,000,000 business
El Paso Coffee Roasters is a family-owned chain of coffee roasters. They have expanded from their humble beginnings in El Paso, to a $30,000,000 business with stores in 44 cities throughout the United States. They originally specialized in Brazilian coffee beans, but they now provide customers with over 50 types of coffee beans. This expansion has progressed relatively smoothly, but Louis is getting older and balder, and he does not want to spend 15 hours each day managing the businesses. Unfortunately, his three children don't have his strong work ethic, and he fears they won't put in even 15 hours each week. In order to head off disaster, Louis has hired you to help them develop a database to support their operations. Your first few days with Louis have been valuable. You have interviewed not only Louis and his children (who told you close to nothing), but also many of the employees who have years of experience and many good ideas. You have summarized the results of these conversations as follows: Each store can carry all types of coffee beans, but they usually specialize in local favorites. These coffee beans are purchased directly from local bean suppliers and are then marked up outrageously. Because of Louis's international reputation, customers are willing to pay almost anything for roasted beans with his name on it. All stores are very successful. Customers (usually small restaurants) are allowed to buy on credit, and all pay on the last day of the month. Louis is rumored to have "family" connections in Jurez, so no customer would consider returning beans or defaulting on a sale. Normal business proceeds as follows. An employee decides approximately how many beans are needed next month to service "his/her" customers. They purchase that amount during the current month, roast all of it, and deliver it before the beginning of the next month. This minimizes the onhand inventory of beans from month to month. Each supplier supplies beans to only the local store; beans are never transported between locations. Employees always use company trucks to visit suppliers and customers. Louis handles all of the hiring at each store. This allows him to select generalists who will not only be good for the store, but also be willing to work for very low wages. As a result, each employee can perform many functions such as purchasing, selling, and roasting beans. These employees earn a wage based on their hourly rate and the number of hours worked. The hours worked are recorded on weekly time cards which are identified by Time Card Numbers which are unique throughout the company. When employees sum their hours at the end of the week, they also note the % of their hours dedicated to roasting beans. Each employee is assigned to just one store. Although they may be transferred to another if Louis sees a need, that would simply change their current assignment and would not be considered them being assigned to multiple stores. El Paso Coffee Roasters also utilizes a fleet of trucks. Painted with their Coffee Bean logo imprinted with the Texas flag, the trucks are driven to pick up coffee beans from suppliers and to deliver the roasted beans to major customers such as coffee shops. The use of a particular truck on a purchase or sale is tracked, as is the time of the employee/driver. Each truck is uniquely numbered, and may be transferred between the stores. Company trucks are leased on yearly contracts from truck vendors. Each contract supplies one truck for one year on a negotiated lease fee. Lease payments against each contract are made monthly by Louis who will send a truck vendor just one check to cover all existing contracts with that supplier. Louis wants to track both the negotiated lease fee and the expected monthly payment amount for each lease.
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