Information please

[abomb]

Just want to start off by saying thanks in advance. I've been coming to this forum for awhile now and always recieved great advice.

I've been playing around with filemaker trying to design an application my company has been wanting to implement for a while but has never taken time to do. I wouldn't say I'm new to FM7, actually I would say I understand some aspects very well, but others I have no grasp of. What it is is a database to help order tracking. What makes it difficult, or at least for my abilities, is how to track data flow. I work for a job shop so each order is unique. We have seven departments that are involved; esimating/sales, engineering, burning, rolling, fabrication, qc, and shipping. All orders go through the sales, engineering, qc, and shipping departments. Not every order goes to each production department. For example, an order may have some burning and rolling but no fabrication.

Basically, I have no idea how to start this process. I don't have a good idea on how to structure the database. Each order has a unique job number assigned to it so I was thinking I would structure it around that. I can see in my mind how I would like it to work. I see an order entry page, a page for engineering that shows all open orders. When they finnish an order, it can be checked and removed from the list. Then, the information would flow to the production departments. Each Manager would have a list of open orders in his department with an estimated load time in hours. Employees could punch in and out on jobs they are working on to keep track of hours applied(some fabrication orders could have hundreds of hours of estimated work). This would flow all the way down to Shipping where the final step would remove the order from the list.

I know something can be done but don't understand how to get it. I started to work on some ideas but they never gave me the results I wanted. I also tried to map it out on paper with some sort of flow chart but have not had very good results. Can someone point me in the right direction. Some sort of website or book, or just posts from forum users that explain how to go about implementing a database like this. What sort of steps should I be taking? Where do I begin, on paper or start entering tables? What sort of tables would I need? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for any help.

[rayd8]

It is my strong opinion you always start on paper first. You are trying to replicate a system or business rules. If you cannot get it down on paper this is a strong indication that you do not have a system.

I would go back to your flowchart and refine it until it makes sense. Then I would build your ERDs to determine your tables and relationships.

Try the current issue of Filemaker Advisor for help. There is an article by Cris Ippolite called "Turn Requirements Into Software". This might get you headed in the right direction.

[LaRetta]

I tried paper. Too rigid on paper - didn't allow changes easily. I tried graphics program - allowed changes but ... something wonderful happens in the brain between hand, visual and writing that does not happen when typing. I can't explain it any better than that ... and it may not be true for everyone.

I use a HUGE whiteboard for structuring relationships and a small one for working out calculations.

LaRetta

[LaRetta]

I can also recommend a pdf by CobaltSky called Thinking about Solution Design . :wink2:

[rayd8]

Oh yeah. Many of the programmers where I work use whiteboards. I myself use a graphics program (OmniGraffle). The bottom line is that you need some type of logic diagram that gives you the "roadmap" to design your database.

Filemaker is great because of it's ease of use but you still need to follow established database design principles.