This system began as a simple inventory system to keep track of lumber in stock.
Eventually it grew to include Shipping, Receiving, and Production. Receiving handles
lumber purchased from another source, or lumber produced from raw trees, or lumber
transferred from another site. Production handles lumber that has been remanufactured, or
sorted and rebundled. Shipping handles transfers to another site or sales to customers.
An Order Entry module was added for the salespeople to enter orders and quotes. This
system allows query of current inventory at multiple sites. Prior to this system being in
place, the salespeople had to walk out in the yard to see what was in stock to sell.
Later, an 'adjust physical inventory' module was added to reconcile actual inventory
with the database inventory.
Manually entering the production of lumber was quite time-consuming, so a barcode
system was developed that would allow the people manufacturing the lumber to enter the
specifications on a PC at the mill, which would produce a rugged, outdoor barcoded 'tag'
to mark the unit, while sending the data to the main office (in another city) to be
automatically entered into the system.
As more and more data were collected, hundreds of reports were added for tabulating
results, especially sales and amount of lumber in stock. Many of these reports are
customizable by the end-user. The ability to 'categorize' various stock items was added,
so each item can be categorized 5 ways as the user desires.
By using Magic, changes to the system have been easily made, and the system has been
growing and changing for the past 6 years, as business needs change. The source code is
available as a 'starting point' for other companies that might be interested in a great
lumber inventory system.
