Operations at the Nursery Products division are simpler because all the customers of the Nursery Products Division are in the Retail Services division.
When Terra Flora purchased the Sacramento nursery, a DECaxp150 running DEC UNIX and PATHWORKS version 5.0 was included in the purchase. All the applications are UNIX and include the following programs.
The Sacramento nursery is the only one that is computerized.
All business operations for the Nursery Products division are tracked in databases on the DECaxp150 server running DEC UNIX, which are listed below.
The network diagram below represents the network computers used in the Nursery Products division.
Figure 4.4 Nursery Products Division network diagram before company-wide consolidation
The following list describes the process for the Nursery Products division.
1. Customer orders for products are received by phone or fax from retail stores.
2. The orders are input on any NetWare client into a front-end NetWare application.
3. Throughout the day, customer orders are processed by an ORACLE database on the DEC UNIX server.
4. A summary, based on the days orders, is printed and input into the accounting database on the UNIX server.
5. The bookkeeper posts the accounting information.
6. Inventory is checked, and those customer orders that can be filled are filled; then product pick tickets are printed and given to the shipping department.
7. Orders are boxed, and shipping labels and customs documents are typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter.
8. A daily summary of customer orders is printed for the nursery manager. Based on the inventory stocking levels, the manager phones the local or international farms to order enough stock to fill the retail customer orders.
9. The nursery manager records the items ordered from suppliers in the ORACLE product order database.