Remote Monitoring and Analysis of an Animal Waste Facility

Tree Nursery Inventory PDA Bar Coding SystemRemote Monitoring and Analysis of an Animal Waste Facility

Project Plan

Team Number: May02-08

September 25, 2001

Client: Hynek Tree Farm

Faculty Advisor: Vijay Vittal

Team members:

Russell Brownsberger

Chuan-Jid Leong

Joseph Hynek

AJ Panska

Table of Contents:

Abstract

Acknowledgement

Definition of Terms

Introduction

General Background

Technical Problem

Operating Environment

Intended User and Uses

Assumptions and Limitations

Design Requirements

Design Objectives

Functional requirements

Design constraints

Measurable milestones

End-Product Description

Approach and Design

Technical approaches

Technical design

Testing description

Risks and risk management

Financial Budget

Personnel Effort Budget

Project Schedule

Project Team Information

Summary

References

Abstract

A nursery presents a unique inventory situation. The trees are sold on an individual basis while still in the ground and are delivered up to a year after being selected by the customer. The customer also has a choice of how they want their tree shipped, bare roots, balled with dirt, or bagged. Each year, some trees are lost due to natural events, animal damage, or disease. The trees are priced according to caliper and grade. Each year the farmer will walk through the nursery and update the stock information. HyTree Farms will have approximately 10,000 trees in their inventory within the next 2 years. The farmer keeps an Access database of the inventory and use that database to market their trees online. There are three components to this project. The client needs a barcode system that can be used in the field to update information about the trees quickly and easily. The client needs a barcode system that can be used by customers to create their purchase order when they shop at the nursery. The barcode system needs to sync this data to a Microsoft Access Database. The database must have an interface that allows the client to view their inventory as well as print Purchase Orders that have been created by a customer. An online catalog of the available nursery stock must be created. Customers that do not wish to pick out their own nursery stock must be able to create a purchase order online from looking at the cataloge. Hardware including a Visor PDA and Symbol Technologies CS-150 barcode unit, a PC with MS Access will be provided by the client. Funds will be provided to purchase the necessary development software to create interfaces for the Palm OS.

Acknowledgement

To be completed.

Definition of Terms

caliper - Caliper is the diameter of the tree measured 6 inches above the ground.

grade - The grade of the tree is determined by the straightness of the trunk and the number of branches on it.

Visor Platinum – A handheld computer that uses the Palm Operating System. Has 8mb of RAM. Uses several buttons and a touch sensitive screen to get input as well as a Springboard Expansion Slot. Runs on 2 AAA batteries that have a life span of 4 weeks. Product information is available from; Handspring Inc., 189 Bernardo Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043, Phone (650)-230-5000, Web:

Symbol Technologies CS-150 barcoder – A small barcode unit that is designed to fit in a Visor Springboard module slot. Product information is available from; Symbol Technologies Inc., One Symbol Plaza, Holtsville, New York 11742-1300, 1-800-722-6234, Web:

Introduction

General Background

Hynek Farms, have been in operation since 1980 near Ellston, IA raising beef, pork, and the necessary crops to produce feed for the stock. The current economic conditions have made nursery stock an attractive market for the Hynek Farms to enter. A contact was made in the landscaping industry that would provide Hynek Farms with a steady customer base for initial startup before their reputation is able to exceed them. The farm is located adjacent to Sun Valley Lake, which is a developing 500 acre private lake with approximately 2000 lots. This will also be also serve as another outlet for the trees. The 275 acre farm is settled in the hills of southwestern Iowa. The trees are planted in lots. Each lot has different characteristics depending on its placement. Each variety of tree is planted in a lot that has the best growing environment to promote fast growth, for example, river birch will be planted in low lying lots where more moisture is present in the soil. Hynek Tree Farm currently has 1800 trees and expects to reach 10000 trees in the next five years. Hynek Tree Farm plants trees that are 1” caliper. Over a three-year period these trees will grow to a caliper of 3-5 inches. These trees will then be sold, harvested, and delivered for a healthy profit. During the tree incubation period, trees are often lost to weather conditions, disease, or animal damage. The client needs a system that enables them to know exactly how much stock they have in the field so they can order appropriately for the next year’s crop. Each year of growth makes a tree more valuable, so the client also needs a system that will allow them to update the price of trees without having to print a bunch of price tags. The client also needs a system that allows a customer to shop for trees out in the field. The system needs to give the client the price of the tree they are interested and it needs to act as a virtual shopping cart. When the customer is done shopping, purchase order they have created must be integrated into the main database, which will automatically update the online catalog. All software must be created with a non-technical customer in mind.

Technical Problem

This project will address the technical problem in three areas; virtual shopping cart, inventory update system, online catalogue order.

The inventory update system and virtual shopping cart software will both be used on a handheld computer. Handheld computers are usually capable of taking input by a touch screen, primitive handwriting recognition system, or a few buttons included on the plastic case. To get the information about the trees, a barcode scanning unit will be interfaced with the handheld computer. The system will be built on a Palm Operating System.

A Handspring Visor PDA with a Springboard expansion slot will allow the user to plug in a Symbol Technologies CS-150 barcoding unit that is capable of reading a wide range of barcode types. The CS-150 comes with SDK files that enable a programmer to easily grab data using the barcoder. In order to decrease the amount of time required for programming a visual based compiler for the Palm 3.0 Operating system will be used for development. Development will most likely be done in C or Visual Basic. The Visor/CS-150 combination and development software will cover the virtual shopping cart and part of the inventory update system.

A Palm Database will be chosen to incorporate into the user interface developed, however, the database used on the PDA will have to be synced with a Microsoft Access database that is to be stored on server PC. A third party software will be incorporated into the package to convert the information in the Palm database into a Microsoft Access Database format.

Initially there will be low volume traffic on the online catalogue, therefore; a Micron 266 MGhz PII computer will be used as the server. The catalogue will be developed using Microsoft Active Server Pages and Microsoft Access. After development is completed, the webpage will be moved to a third party web-hosting service to ensure uninterrupted access to the catalogue.

Operating Environment

The operating environment will be outdoors during daylight hours. The nursery business will start in March and last until early November. Updates of inventory will take place at the end of the season so the system will experience cold weather, but not freezing conditions. It is assumed that the user will handle the system similar to a cell phone, which means it should not get wet, get dirty, or be dropped.

Sunny conditions are possible. This must be kept in mind when selecting a barcode system.

The online catalogue will be in a low traffic environment. The number of hits is not expected to be high, but most important, the system must be on 7 days a week 24 hrs per day. This will allow customers to shop whenever they are interested.

Intended User and Uses

The intended users of the inventory update system are the clients and hired help of the clients. The employees of Hynek Tree Farms are all capable of learning new technologies. They have experience using a Windows and Macintosh operating system. They have not been exposed to Palm operating system. It may be assumed that they do not know how to do “Graffiti”, handwriting recognition on the palm system.

The virtual shopping cart could be used by people with no computer experience. The virtual shopping cart will scan the barcode, display information about that tree including: price, expected height, zone that it can withstand, and a summary of care needed. A “buy” or “remove” button must be accessible to the shopper so that they may purchase the tree if they like it. There must be a running total for the contents in the shopping cart that will allow the shopper to know how much they’ve spent.

The online catalogue will be used by people on the Internet and the client to print out a hardcopy of their inventory. People who look at it will most likely have some affiliating with landscaping architecture and will be able to recognize technical terms used to define trees. The webpage must be simple and easy to use. It will be used for researching trees, viewing pictures of the trees, and creating purchase orders.

Assumptions and Limitations

Assumptions will mostly be based on hardware. It is assumed that the CS-150 Barcode unit will be available on the market and supported by Symbol Technologies for the next 5 years. It is assumed that Handspring visor will be available on the market for the next 5 years and that they will continue to have a Springboard module built into their system. It is assumed that Palm Operating system will still be supported and available for the next 5 years.

It is assumed that the client will use unique barcodes for each of their trees and that there will be no doubling up on numbers. It is assumed that the farmer will use standard barcode formats that can be read by the CS-150 barcode scanner. It is assumed that the client will annually if not biannually update inventory information.

It is assumed that only one shopper will use the virtual shopping cart at a time, that way trees which have already been bought will not get sold. A color-coated ribbon will be tied around each tree to signify that the tree has been bought and by which customer according to their color.

It is assumed that low traffic will occur on the catalogue webpage and that Microsoft Access will be able to handle the traffic.

Design Requirements

Design Objectives

This project will address the technical problem in three areas; virtual shopping cart, inventory update system, online catalogue order. A Handspring Visor PDA with a Springboard expansion slot will allow the user to plug in a Symbol Technologies CS-150 barcoding unit that is capable of reading a wide range of barcode types. The CS-150 comes with SDK files that enable a programmer to easily grab data using the barcoder. In order to decrease the amount of time required for programming a visual based compiler for the Palm 3.0 Operating system will be used for development. Development will most likely be done in C or Visual Basic. The Visor/CS-150 combination and development software will cover the virtual shopping cart and part of the inventory update system.

Functional requirements

The virtual shopping cart will have two screens. The first is the TreeInfo and Buy Screen. The virtual shopping cart interface must print out the following information once a tree barcode has been scanned: tree price, tree name, max height, max shade, fall color, best soil type, need for moisture, IsFlowering, and Zone. Once a tree has been selected, the user must be able to add the tree to their shopping cart by pressing one of the hard coated buttons. If the user would like to remove a tree from their cart, they must rescan the barcode and have an easy remove tree button to push on the PDA. This screen must always show the running total of items in the shopping cart and the number of items purchased.

The virtual shopping cart must also have a screen where they can view the contents in their shopping cart. This should be in table format with columns of TreeName, Location, and price. On this screen the user should be able to manually remove items without having to scan in the barcode.

Any time that a barcode is scanned while using the Virtual Shopping Cart, the TreeInfo/Buy/Add Screen should appear. A menu should be available to allow for the shopping cart to be downloaded to the central database or to have it cleared for a new user.

The inventory update system will have 3 screens. The first screen will be used to input data for new trees and to update data. The screen shall have several editable combo boxes that enable the client to enter the following data: barcode, TreeName, lot, row, column, planting date, caliper, and grade. Each of these combo boxes should retain the most recently entered data since trees of similar varieties and types will be planted in the same lots and the client does not wish to spend any extra time entering data.

The second screen will be used for fulfilling purchase orders. When a purchase order delivery date arrives, the farmer will have to harvest the trees. A screen similar to the VSC table including TreeName/Location/Price will be loaded. This table should include TreeName/Location/Packaging. This will allow the farmer to travel with the equipment out to the field and harvest the tree. There should be some buttons available that will allow the farmer to move the item from the purchase order to a harvested list once it has been harvested.

In the case that a tree in a purchase order has died, the software should allow the farmer to substitute another tree of the same type, charge the same price so that the purchase order may be fulfilled. If there is no available stock, the farmer must be able to reprint a purchase order so that a new total can be calculated for the customer.

Both the VSC and the Inventory Update software must download their information into the central database. The database should automatically update itself and move items from one area to another

Design constraints

The virtual shopping cart device must be able to easily fit into a shirt pocket of the client or the shopper. The shopping cart must be able to be easily operated without using graffiti or the stylus.

The system must be able to be used for 7 years.

The inventory update system must be able to easily fit into a shirt pocket. It must keep track of most commonly used numbers or choices and allow the user to easily select those for entering data for the next tree in the lot.

The online catalogue must be automatically updated when new information is entered into the Microsoft Access database. It must work on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The webpage must load text information on catalogue pages in less than 10 seconds across a 56K modem and must load picture data in less than 15 seconds across a 56K modem.

Measurable milestones

Here are some suggested major checkpoints in this project that determine its success:

A beautiful, descriptive, and understanding poster regarding this project will be produced.
Website regarding the project will be created.
Definition of variables that will be included in the database
Interface diagram laid out for the inventory update system.
Interface diagram laid out for the virtual shopping cart.
Development software picked out and purchased for the project
Palm Database system picked out
Final report of the project to be written and revised.
Code developed for Palm inventory update system
Data collected with Inventory update system is uploaded to Access database
Debugging of the inventory update system
Code developed for the virtual shopping cart
Debugging of the virtual shopping cart
Online catalogue ASP code up and working
Online catalogue posted to the internet on a web host

End-Product Description

The “Tree Tracker” is a unique inventory tracking system that utilizes a handheld computer with a barcode scanning unit to keep track of inventory, allow customers to shop in the nursery using the virtual shopping cart feature, and all data is linked back to a main database to allow nursery to have excellent data quality. The product allows a nursery to keep accurate records of their inventory so they can precisely calculate how much inventory is sold, calculate how many trees they will need to plant to meet their customer demand.