Posted: April 20th, 2022

System Request – Spare Parts Management System

System Request – Spare Parts Management System
Project Sponsor: The Director of the Field Operations Department.
Business Need: The Field Operations Department wants to improve their field
technician utilization from the current average of 60% to 75%. This could be
realized by having a Spares Management System to replace the manual
spreadsheet process.
Business Requirements: The department is responsible to fix the company’s
wireless network equipment, such as antennas, switches, base stations, etc.
installed around a city. The department has 200 field technicians, each drives a
field technician van. A typical process is as the following:
1. When a faulty site is detected by the Network Operations Center (NOC), a
field technician is dispatch to the site.
2. The technician will drive to the site and trouble shoot the problem.
3. Majority of the time, they need parts to fix problems.
4. Parts are stored in 5 warehouses around the city. Currently, each
warehouse keeps track of its inventory using an excel spreadsheet.
5. A field technician must call each warehouse to find which warehouse has
the part needed and drives to that warehouse to pick the part. Staffs in that
warehouse update the excel spreadsheet accordingly.
6. Several problems with the current process:
a. Inventory spreadsheet in each inventory is not accurate. Many times,
a field technician comes to the specific warehouse, and the
warehouse staffs cannot locate the part although it is listed in the
spreadsheet.
b. Sometimes they encounter a “racing issue” where 2 or more field
technicians call for the same part and are told they are available, but
only the first one who come gets it, the others waste the time driving
to the warehouse and must call other warehouses to locate the part
and start the process again.
c. These problems result in field technicians waste a lot of the time
driving from one warehouse to another to find the parts. It is
estimated that 15% of their time are wasted due to this problem.
Business Value: There are 200 field technicians in the department. Each is
assigned a van. A field technician works 2,000 hours per year with a man rate of
$100/hour. A man rate is a blended average cost per hour of a technician, which
includes wage, benefits, tools, vehicle (gas, maintenance, and other costs), etc.
Assume the man rate and the number of field technicians remain constant
moving forward.
There are 2 benefits to be included in the benefit-cost analysis:
1. Improving the utilization rate by 15% means the hours that are currently spent
on unnecessary driving time, can be used for solving problems. You convert
these hours to dollars.
2. Intangible benefit of fixing additional problems. Each problem needs on the
average 10 hours to be fixed. Intangible benefit of fixing problems includes
avoiding churns, maintaining reputation, and improving brand name. The net
quantified intangible benefit to fix each problem is estimated $80.
Special Issue or Constraint: The ROI must be at least 20% for a 5-year business
case and the break-event point must be less than 4 years for the project to
continue.
Warehouse
Network Operations Center
What to submit:
Each team is to submit one report to be uploaded to Canvas.
1. Each team must notify the TA by email who will do the submission by 4/7.
2. The report must be in either Word or pdf format.
3. On the top left, you must list all team members.
4. No collaborations between teams.
5. Tables, diagrams, and graphs must be clear and legible.
6. You must use a UML tool to draw the diagrams.
7. You must use the right notations for the diagrams. Be creative. All diagrams
must be logical and have correct notations (syntax).
8. All diagrams must be consistent with each other.
9. Submission is due 11.59 pm 4/14. No extension for any reason. Don’t wait
until the last minute.
Hint, you may use the Library Book Management system in the text book as an
example.
The team report shall include (each is a section):
1. Benefit-Cost Analysis (50) -5-year business case. All rows and columns must
be clearly labeled and visible, similar to the example we worked in class.
The calculations must be correct.
2. Break-Even Point graph (5).
3. Assignment Help – Summarize the Benefit-Cost Analysis findings and your recommendation
(continue with the project or not) in one paragraph (5). Regardless of your
recommendation, you still need to submit the diagrams.
4. Functional View – Use Case Diagram (5). The Use Case diagram must have
a. Search Availability Location use-case (This use-case is to find which
warehouse(s) has the needed part).
b. Get Part use-case (similar to the Borrow Book use case).
c. Replenish Part use-case (This use-case is to replace the part taken by
a technician).
Ace my homework – Write few paragraphs to explain.
5. Functional View (write few paragraphs to explain each diagram) (14)–
a. Activity Diagram for Get Part use case(7)
b. Activity Diagram for Search Availability Location use case (7).
6. Structural View – Class Diagram (7). You don’t need to create CRCs, but
write few paragraphs to explain.
7. Behavioral Diagram (write few paragraphs to explain each diagram) (14).
a. Sequence Diagram for the Get Part use-case. (7)
b. Sequence Diagram for the Search Availability Location use-case. (7)
Additional information:
The system is estimated to take 1 full year to develop and implement (year 1 of
the 5-year business case). Benefits will be gain after the implementation of the
system. The system will use Cloud computing services (pay per use), meaning the
Cloud computing costs will be incurred only when the system is in operation (after
implementation). As in other Cloud solutions, you still need some on-premise
hardware and software.
During the development stage, you need to purchase and install on-premise
hardware ($80,000) and software ($2,000,000). You receive warranty for year 1
(development year) but must pay hardware and software maintenance after that.
The annual hardware maintenance cost is 12.5% of the hardware cost and the
annual software maintenance cost is 7.5% of the software cost.
You need a team of 5 engineers to develop the system each will work 2000 hours
and their labor rate is $100/hour.
Cloud service fees are estimated $3,500,000 per annum. These fees start after the
implementation.
The network must be up and running 24×7 365 days a year, hence the new system
must also be continuously monitored and fixed immediately if there is a problem.
You need 5 technicians to cover the 24×7 monitoring service, the cost is
$65,000/persons/annum.
After discussion with your finance department, you are told to use discount rate
of 10%.

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Spare Parts Management System – System Request
The Director of Field Operations is the project’s sponsor.

The Field Operations Department wishes to improve their field.

Technician utilization should be increased from the current average of 60% to 75%. This could be

realized by having a Spares Management System to replace the manual

spreadsheet process.

Business Requirements: The department is responsible to fix the company’s

wireless network equipment, such as antennas, switches, base stations, etc.

installed around a city. The department has 200 field technicians, each drives a

field technician van. A typical process is as the following:

1. When a faulty site is detected by the Network Operations Center (NOC), a

field technician is dispatch to the site.

2. The technician will drive to the site and

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