Computerized Chemicals Inventory System Over the past few yearn the Chemistry Department of the State University of New York a t Geneseo has been autamating its stockmam operations. The first phase concerned the computerization of the bookkeeping involved with the check-in and eheck-out of laboratory equipment used in the various undergraduate teaching lahoratories. This was ariginally reported in J. CHEM. EDUC., 49, 180 (1972). This system, Computerized Stockroom Inventory System (CSIS), was originally written in Fortran IV for an IBM 1130. CSIS has now been extensively revised and is currently operating very successfully in a Cobol version on a Burroughs B-3500. In an effort to further automate the stackroom inventory procedures a new system, Chemicals Inventory System (CIS), has been designed. Initially, the system requires that two master files be established: 1) Chemicals file: alpha number, chemical name, vendor code, vendor catalog number, price, unit amount, reorder paint, quantity an hand, flags. 2) Company name file: vendor code, vendor's name The price and unit amount fields are not being used by the Chemistry Department since this information is changed frequently by vendors. In order to maintain the system, all transactions (both additions to and subtractions fmm the chemicals stoek) are entered into an update file which is periodically processed against the existing chemicals master file to produce an up-to-date chemicals file. The Chemistry Department uses standard 80-column forms which are then keypunched to generate the information needed for the update file. The system presently generates the following reports: 1) Activity report 2) Reorder report of chemicals in alphabetical order 3) Reorder report by vendor with the chemicals in alphabetic order 4) Purchase drder report for stockmom use 5) Purchase order report for Business Office use 6) Current master chemicals file listing
The activity report is ohtained periodically by the stockroom clerk from the updated master file and contains alpha number, item name, quantity on hand plus quantity on order, actual quantity on hand, quantity removed since last update, quantity added since last update, and date of last update. An asterisk is printed for each item which has not had a transaction within one year. The reorder reports alert the stockroom clerk as to those items for which thequantity on hand plus quantity on order is less than the reorder quantity. The purchase order reports are arranged according to the format used far requisitions by the Business Office. The first is used by the stockroom clerk who decides how to order the quantities needed. This information is then typed on to the second order report which is used as the external purchase order by the Business Office. The system, CIS, is written in Cobol and is presently being run on a Burmughs B-3500 computer. The authors gratefully acknowledge systems and programming assistance fmm members of the Computer Center staff. Further infarmationconcerning the system is available from the first-named author.
J. L. Deutsch C. L. Frew E. W. Deutsch Stateuniversity of New York Geneseo, New York 14454
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Journal of Chemical Education
