Sevco Industries is a manufacturing firm specializing in the design and production of small electronic com$-$

ponents and parts. From its world headquarters in upstate New York, the company ships to locations around

the globe. The company was started $7$ years ago by a group of businesspersons who saw an unfilled niche in

the electronics market. $-$working with guidance from $-$various manufacturers in such markets as the automo$-$

tive, aircraft, sound, and electronic test$-$equipment industries, these investors launched the firm as a $10,000-$

squarefoot manufacturing facility. Today, the firm operates a modern $50,000-$squarefoot plant.

Order Entry and Invoicing

The rapid growth of Sevco Industries has brought a need to examine the current order entry and in$-$

voicing processes used by the firm. The high volume of orders, coupled with the need for meeting

definite shipping dates, is a matter of great importance to Sevco, since competition, claiming high cus$-$

tomer satisfaction, has recently become more aggressive. Sevco's management is worried that, as busi$-$

ness expands, they will lose control of orders and receivables, resulting in reduced customer service.

The firm is highly dependent on computer$-$based systems for accounts payable, general ledger, and

employee payroll processing. The manufacturing and inventory records are maintained by an effective

and efficient manual system.

Concern Over Order Processing

Maintaining capability and control is important in order processing. It must be carried out in a timely,

accurate fashion and be integrated with the other areas of the company. Currently, orders are being

lost $("$Always seems to be at the wrong time, too"$)$ according to Severski. Backlogs occur for the two

persons who process orders. The order system must permit all relevant details about orders to be cap$-$

tured quickly and efficiently as they arrive at the facility. At the same time, the system should provide

the capability to track orders in process.

Management knows that customers complain when orders are lost or delayed. According to manage$-$

ment, the loss rate is not excessive, but, when losses do occur, they must be dealt with quickly.

Employees who handle orders and invoicing do not like the backlogs that occur Usually overtime is

not necessary to reduce the backlog although sometimes other work is delayed while employees catch

up on "book work".

Sevco officials have not placed any specific constraints on a study of ways to improve the order entry

and invoicing system. They have indicated their willingness to consider anything that seems reason$-$

able. Certainly allotting $50$ to $80$ man$-$hours for the study is feasible.

Sevco management decided to conduct a study of the firm's order entry, invoicing, and accounts re$-$

ceivable operations to determine the suitability of automating these functions.

Requirements

You have been hired by Sevco to conduct a systems analysis of Sevco' s order entry and invoicing op$-$

erations. Based on the interviews, observations, and documents that you have collected, you learnt a

great deal about Sevco' s order entry cycle and invoicing procedures. The description below provides a

summary of these procedures. As part of your analysis, you are required to construct a data flow dia$-$

gram $($DFD$)$ model to represent $($graphically$)$ the activities and data flow in Sevco's current order entry

and invoicing system $($Assumptions: You can assume that only the customer information and the in$-$

ventory information are the two data stores that are used by other systems such as Inventory System

and Customer Review System.$)$ Specifically for this assignment you are required to do the following:

a$.$ Draw a$-$context diagram $($level$-$O diagram$).$

$6.$ Draw a level$-1$ diagram.

c$.$ Draw a level$-2$ diagram for each of the following activities:

$1.$ Order Entry

$11.$ Order Processing

iii. Billing $($Invoicing$)$

$1$y$.$ Payment and Credit.

Description of Order Entry and Invoicing Procedures

The data flow analysis for Sevco Industries revealed five major processes: entering the order, process$-$

ing the order, producing the invoice, posting payments and adjustments to customer accounts, and

maintaining accounts receivable records: Each of these processes is described below.

"The Order Entry Procedure

The order entry procedure includes all activities that occur from the receipt of an order from a cus$-$

tomer until it is accepted by the firm. All the details captured during the various interviews and ex$-$

amination of records enable analysts to understand the activities and decisions that comprise the order

entry procedure. $($From the point of view of the order entry and invoicing system, management is an

outside entity.$)$

When orders are received, they are first price$-$verified: the price of the part on the order is checked

against the price retrieved from the parts inventory file. Next, the customer account status is verified.

To this end, information concerning the customer account