ITC508 Object Modeling Case Study For Assessment Item 823564
Itc508 Object Modeling Case Study For Assessment Item 2text Book P
Itc508 Object Modeling Case Study For Assessment Item 2. This case study involves analyzing the operational structure of the production lines at FoodCo's Beechfield factory based on a detailed interview transcript with the factory manager, Hari Patel. The objective is to understand the organizational, operational, and data-related aspects of the production process to develop suitable object modeling solutions that accurately represent the factory's workflows, roles, and data flows.
Paper For Above instruction
Introduction
Developing an effective object model for manufacturing processes necessitates a comprehension of the organizational and operational landscape of the factory. The Beechfield factory of FoodCo provides a rich context for such analysis, given its structured production lines, roles, and documentation systems. This study aims to analyze the workflows, roles, data entities, and processes described in the interview transcript, and then propose an object-oriented model that accurately captures these elements for purposes of system design or process optimization.
Operational Organization of FoodCo’s Beechfield Factory
The core organizational structure at Beechfield revolves around two principal staff categories: operatives and supervisors. Operatives perform the primary work on the production lines, varying in skill levels from semi-skilled to skilled, and are tasked with feeding ingredients or operating machinery. Supervisors have a broader oversight role, managing one production line each, ensuring raw materials availability, handling emergencies, and overseeing output and personnel issues. The staffing arrangements, where operatives can be reassigned and work across multiple lines, imply the need for flexible role and assignment modeling within an object-oriented framework.
Production Line Mechanics and Scheduling
The production lines operate based on weekly schedules generated by production planners and communicated to supervisors via schedules every Friday. Each line typically produces different products depending on the week's schedule, and start-up times are generally at the beginning of the day, with breaks scheduled to optimize productivity. The model must include entities representing production schedules, lines, and daily operational timings, along with processes for start-up, changeovers, and breaks. The fact that lines can sometimes run longer or shorter, and that changeover times are scheduled during breaks, suggests the need for flexible time and state modeling for lines.
Role of Supervisors and Their Processes
Supervisors' roles encompass preparation before each run—checking ingredients, staff, and equipment readiness; initiating line start-up; troubleshooting issues; recording attendance and times; and concluding runs by verifying output, updating records, and tidying the line. These activities involve real-time and record-keeping functions, suggesting objects such as 'Supervisor', 'TimeSheet', 'ProductionRecord', and 'JobCard.' The supervisor’s decision-making processes, such as dealing with shortages or emergencies, demonstrate the importance of modeling conditional behaviors and exception handling in the system.
Data Collection and Documentation
Key documents include timesheets, production schedules, job cards, and production records. These contain data such as employee names, job numbers, timestamps, quantities produced, and ingredient inventories. The object model must incorporate data entities like 'Timesheet,' 'ProductionSchedule,' 'JobCard,' and 'ProductionRecord,' each with attributes reflecting the relevant fields, and relationships indicating their associations, such as a 'Supervisor' associated with multiple 'ProductionRecords' or 'Timesheets.'
Production Process Workflow
The workflow begins with planning, scheduling, and preparation, continues through execution with start-up, monitoring, troubleshooting, and ends with recording output and cleanup. This sequential but dynamic process involves multiple interacting objects, reflecting the procedural flow and control structures required in the object model.
Product Variability and Schedule Changes
The production process is variable: product types change daily, and scheduling is dynamic, based on weekly plans. The object model thus needs to support dynamic reconfiguration of production lines, schedule objects, and associated activities, possibly via polymorphic classes or state patterns representing different production modes or schedules.
Conclusion
Analyzing the interview data reveals a manufacturing environment characterized by flexible staffing, scheduled processes, real-time supervision, and detailed record-keeping. An object model designed to capture this environment must include entities relating to personnel, schedules, production activities, and documentation, with behavior models accommodating exception handling, process flow, and data integrity.
Such a model would facilitate process simulation, automation of scheduling and record-keeping, and support decision-making in operations management, ultimately leading to enhanced efficiency and adaptability of FoodCo’s production processes.
References
- Abrahamsson, P., & Warsta, J. (2003). New directions on agile methods: a comparative analysis. In 2003 Agile Conference.
- Booch, G., Rumbaugh, J., & Jacobson, I. (2005). The Unified Modeling Language User Guide. Addison-Wesley.
- Coad, P., & Yourdon, E. (1991). Object-Oriented Analysis. Yourdon Press.
- Giammatteo, M. (2007). Object-oriented modeling and design. International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, 7(2), 197–204.
- Jacobson, I., Booch, G., & Rumbaugh, J. (1999). The Unified Software Development Process. Addison-Wesley.
- Johnson, R. (1992). Documenting Object-Oriented Systems. Addison-Wesley.
- Rumbaugh, J., Blaha, M., Premerlani, W., Eddy, F., & Lorensen, W. (1991). Object-Oriented Modeling and Design. Prentice Hall.
- Sommerville, I. (2011). Software Engineering (9th ed.). Addison-Wesley.
- Stevens, R., Pooley, R., & Rohnert, H. (1998). Using UML: Software Engineering with Objects and Components. Addison-Wesley.
- Xu, S., & Liu, Y. (2015). Modeling manufacturing processes using UML components. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 36, 125–135.