National University of Sciences and Technology
(NUST)
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science (SEECS)
CS220 Database Systems
Assignment # 2
Student Details:
Section: BESE 12-B
Group Members:
Name CMS ID
Abdul Wasay 375602
Fahd Ahmad 365665
Waleed Ahmed 372675
Project Proposal
Title of Project:
Inventory Management System
Introduction of Team:
There are 3 people in our team, namely:
• Abdul Wasay
• Fahd Ahmad
• Waleed Ahmed
All 3 students are Sophomores studying Software Engineering.
Introduction of Group Members:
• Abdul Wasay will be working on the backend of this system due to his
supreme coding skills and vast experience in the SQL language.
• Fahd Ahmad will be working on the frontend due to this passion for aesthetics
and his ability to make applications look pleasing to the eye.
• Waleed Ahmed will be connecting the frontend with the backend and
managing the overall system to ensure everything is functional, efficient, and
skilfully executed.
Background:
It is 2022 and humanity as we know it is going through an era of great technological
progress and innovative thinking. In the modern world, almost all aspects of our daily
lives have been digitised, and the online world of the internet is playing an
instrumental role in our day-to-day dealings.
Several decades ago, the idea of online shopping was seen as a temporary craze, a
fad that would soon disappear. Amazon, the pioneer of online retailing, struggled to
make sales when it started in the late 90’s, but as the internet grew in popularity and
people became more accustomed to digital services, online shopping quickly picked
up its pace to mainstream adoption. As a result, several online retailers showed up
on the world stage just as globalisation started becoming commonplace in the global
economy.
Fast forward to 2020, and the WHO declares COVID-19 as a pandemic and the
world is plunged into chaos. Lockdowns are imposed in most parts of the world, and
human-to-human interaction is limited to the bare minimum. As a result, shops shut
down and people turn to the internet in order to buy their daily essentials, as well as
products they would like to splurge on. Online retailers like Amazon in the US and
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Daraz in Pakistan skyrocket in popularity and these platforms witness historic sales
and expansion.
In order to keep up with the sky-high demand, these retailers have distributed
storages across regions. For example, Daraz has several warehouses across
Pakistan, sprinkled across several cities and provinces, allowing timely delivery and
low transportation costs. As a result, it is a mammoth task to keep track of all the
goods entering and leaving warehouses across all locations, as well as ensuring
enough stock is kept to meet demand, maximise sales, and ultimately, profit.
There are several advantages to online retailing and ecommerce, and they are as
follows:
For the consumer:
1. Huge Variety: as online stores are not limited by traditional store size and
affiliations with particular brands, these websites offer much more variety of
every kind of product, from shoes to smartphones. As a result, consumers can
compare different brands more easily and choose the best option rather than
settling for what is available.
2. More Economical: as a person does not have to spend time and money to
travel to a physical store, it is more efficient. In addition, a person working a
job finds it easier to shop online after work as online stores are up and
running 24/7.
3. Lower Prices: as online stores don’t have to pay high store rents and other
hidden costs, they can keep prices low, and this means consumers can buy
the same things for less.
For the seller:
1. Global Reach: a website is not bound to a specific location like a physical
store, and therefore, online sellers have the opportunity to exponentially
increase their sales and target a wider audience.
2. Lower Costs: sellers get to keep more of their profit as there are lower costs
associated with online selling.
3. No Schedules: sellers aren’t bound by store timings and off-days, and can
keep selling online 24/7.
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We have identified this unique problem in the global retailing industry and have
therefore decided to design an Inventory Management System that can be used to
keep track of stock and inventory in warehouses owned by large corporations.
An Inventory Management System has the following advantages for any company
thinking to adopt it:
1. Lower Labour Costs: Labour is a huge cost for online retailers, and so using
this system allows these companies to cut down on staff and save costs in the
long run.
2. Increased Automation: This system implements latest technologies to an
existing problem, and allows retailers to automate inventory checking,
ordering, updating etc. This increases accuracy, improves efficiency,
promotes timely deliveries, avoids inaccurate entries and stolen goods, and
any other errors that were previously causes by human intervention.
3. Easier Data Analysis: ‘Data is the new Oil’ for large corporations, and
therefore, using a system like this one allows easy data analysis and reporting
to shareholders and can result in better decision-making due to the ease of
measuring performance.
Overview of the System:
Our implementation of an Inventory Management System is simple yet effective. We
are going to implement the system using a database system created using the SQL
language as this is the language being taught in this particular course. The system is
intended to be used by online retailers to manage multiple types of inventories in
multiple warehouses across several locations. The user will be presented with a
thoughtful, well-laid-out frontend display where he/she can input necessary
commands, and the backend will handle the rest, functionally linking the database
and updating the respective records accordingly.
As well as handling inventory in a structured and easy-to-understand way, this
system will also have the following features:
1. Every user will be able to login to his/her account and be able to add, update
and delete inventory levels according to the rights granted by the
administration staff. A regular employee will only be able to access and
update inventory for his/her specific warehouse.
2. On the other hand, executives with higher authority can manage several
warehouses and perhaps all the locations through their individual account.
Different rights will be granted for each account in order to ensure data
integrity, operational security and intellectual privacy.
3. Once the inventory level for a particular product goes under a pre-set
threshold, a “Low Inventory” notification is sent to the user, prompting him/her
to consider ordering more stock from the supplier.
4. If the inventory level for a good exceeds the allocated space in the warehouse
after the arrival of a shipment, the system will prevent any further stock entry
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and will prompt the user to return the extra items or shift them to another
warehouse that has enough space.
5. In the event of a product recall (such as contaminated food items or hygiene
products containing harmful chemicals), the inventory management system
will automatically notify the user and prompt the user to return the recalled
goods back to the concerned supplier. The system will also block all future
sales of that product so that no consumer accidently receives the harmful item
via an online purchase.
Considering these details, we’re sure this inventory system will be a complete,
feature-laden software that will be a great addition to any enterprise looking to iron
out its logistical and operational processes.
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