Understanding the Digital Revolution

        

 Assignment 1 - Hat City

     

     Overview

For this individual assignment, you will use skills acquired through practical laboratory exercises to automate a business process, and to visualize the impact of the automation.

You should use Microsoft Excel (or equivalent open-source software) for this assessment task.

Important: This assignment specification is generated just for you. Do not distribute this specification. If your personal specification is made publicly available online, academic misconduct charges may be applied.

     Assessment Details

For this assignment, you will complete the following set of tasks using Excel, and build an Portfolio page to describe your work.

    Task 0 - Setting up

Create an Portfolio page for your assignment. You will submit this page to Moodle as per the lab tasks.

You may call it whatever you like, for example ITECH1100 Assignment 1 - 30356995.

     Scenario details

Hat City is a small clothing manufacturer, specializing in creating custom, one-of-a-kind hats. They exclusively sell their product through their online store.

Hat City is run by a team of three staff members: Alexa, Bhavesh, and Conrad.

Alexa and Bhavesh work together to manufacture hats. Conrad manages orders, sales and delivery.

     Team hours

Most of the time, team members work the following shifts:

Alexa works 7.5 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays;

Bhavesh works 7.5 hours on Thursdays and Fridays; and  

Conrad works 4.5 hours every weekday.

Additionally, Alexa and Conrad share responsibility for managing the Hat City social media presence, with Alexa working one extra hour in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Conrad doing the same on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

     Costs

Alexa and Bhavesh, as skilled manufacturing staff, cost $26 per hour to employ.

Conrad, a part-time employee, costs $24 per hour to employ.

All staff are also entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave, during which a casual replacement is required at a cost of $39 per hour.

Fixed costs such as rent and insurance are $9100 per year, and utilities costs are $260 per month.

     Task 1 - Costs of operating the business

Using Excel, create a spreadsheet called operating_costs.xlsx that calculates the projected annual outgoing costs of running Hat City.

Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the working hours, hourly rates, and fixed and utility costs can be varied easily.

Document your findings in your Portfolio page (approximately 100 words).

     Manufacturing hats

Hat City receive requests through their online store, and Conrad responds with a quote, after consulting with a member of the manufacturing team. If the customer confirms their order, Alexa and Bhavesh manufacture the ordered products, and Conrad organizes delivery.

Currently, the process for generating a quote is entirely subjective, based on the requested material and hat size. Staff members quote an amount based on their personal experience.

For several months, staff have been keeping track of the quote date, material, size, quote amount, and manufacturing cost for each order in a spreadsheet. As each product is hand-made, the manufacturing cost may vary between similar orders.

If a quote was not accepted by the customer, then manufacturing cost is not included.

This spreadsheet is available for download on Moodle.

     Task 2 - Order information

Using Excel, process the history of orders spreadsheet and use appropriate charts to visualize:

How some aspect of quoting or manufacturing has changed over time; and  How the quote amount differed for each staff member.

You will need to find a way to use Excel to associate each quote with a staff member.

Describe your approach and your findings in your Portfolio (approximately 250-400 words), and attach the Excel file to your page.

     Task 3 - Price consistency

Using Excel, analyse the historical data you have available, and create a spreadsheet that allows a member of the Hat City team to enter the hat material and size, and gives a quote amount.

Ensure that you include enough text and formatting to make your spreadsheet usable by a member of the Hat City team (or by a University lecturer).

You may base your quote amount either on historical averages, or to ensure that Hat City makes a profit.

Validate your quoting approach by applying your formula to historical data.

Justify your approach in your Portfolio (approximately 150 words), and attach your Excel file to your Portfolio.

  

     Task 4 - Process improvement

Extend your spreadsheet page from task 3 to automate the above processes, allowing a member of the team to enter the hat material and size, and in addition to the quote amount indicate whether to start manufacturing immediately.

It is up to you do determine how to determine which items are popular.

Justify your approach in your Portfolio (approximately 150 words), and attach your Excel file to your Portfolio.

     Bonus challenge task (optional!)

Disclaimer: This task is 100% optional, and you can receive full marks without attempting or completing it. It is intended to be a challenge if you are interested in such things, and the marks available do not reflect the significant research and effort required to implement it correctly. Tutors will not provide significant assistance for this challenge task.

     Optional task 5

Reimplement Tasks 1, 3 and 4 using either Python or HTML+JavaScript.

Write a brief overview of how to run your solution, and attach a zip file containing your code to your Portfolio page.

There are no partial marks awarded for this bonus task - you must complete all features to attain the bonus marks.

It is possible to attain full marks for this assignment without completing this challenge task.

    Assignment support

This assignment is supported by the first 6 lectures and labs. Work on the assignment should be spread over several weeks after the relevant lab has been mastered.

    

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